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A BOOK ON 



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By 

3PWWOLL 



»yw3k'VS» .',1 









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i «il^?i^X- ^^h y,-.No- ^38. April 26. 1900. Bi- Weekly. Year, $5.00. Entered at Chicago Post Office 
1 class-matter. Published at 166 Adams Street, by "v-agu ruav \juu,v 



The Mccormick 

VERTICAL 

CORN BINDER 




X:all on the McCormick Agent. 



The only Com Binder made that will 
cut and bind com under all the un- 
favorable conditions in which the crop 
is found at cutting time, making neat, 
tight, square-butted bundles. 

It will cut and bind BIG corn, LITTLE 
corn, DOWN corn, LODGED corn, or 
any other kind of corn that grows 
in rows. 



A BOOK ON SILAGE. 




Harder's Patent 



AH -Open Front 

Round Silos 



MADE ONLY AT 



EMPIRE AG'L WORKS, 

GEO. D. HARDER, PROP. 

COBLESKILL, N. Y. 

We make hundreds of differ- 
ent sizes, using fine 
Gulf Cypress, also 
White Hemlock Lumber. 



This is the SILO that Saves 50 per cent of the Labor, and 
makes an important Annual Saving for the Siloist. 



Conical Roofs for Sibs. 

Butterfly Roofs for Silos. 
Silo Hoops. Malleable Lugs. 
Everything that is desirable 
in Silo work. 
The celebrated Smalley Cutters, 
Traveling Table and 
Hand-Feed Machines 
for Filling Silos. 
We supply the Silo and all 
machinery needed therewith — 
Cutter, Carrier, and Power, ar- 
ranged all in harmony for best 
success. 

Threshing Machines. 

Straw-Preserving Rye 
Threshers and Binde'rs, etc. 

Dog and Sheep Powers for 

Cream Separators. 
Land Rollers. 

Feed Mills. Fanning Mills. 




A BOOK ON 



SILAGE 



F. wc:woLL, 

Assistant Professor of Agricultural Chemistry, TJmversity of Wis- 
consin; Translator of Grotenfelt's "Principles of Modern 
Dairy Practice"; author of "A Handbook for Farm- 
ers and Dairymen," and Joint Author of 
"Testing Milk audits Products." 






WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 



REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION. 



CHICAGO : 

Rand, McNally & Company. 

1900. 



Library of CoBffret% 
Office of tli« 

MAY 7 -1800 

Keglttar ef Ctpyrlglitt, 

SECOND COPY. Q.'70OS~ 



61538 



Copyright, 1895, by Rand, McNally «fe Co. 
Copyright, 1900, by Kand, McNally & Co. 






%^ 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Introduction. 



CHAPTER I. 

Silage crops — Indian corn — Development of the corn plant — 
Varieties to be planted for the silo — Methods of planting 
corn— Thickness of planting— Planting in hills or in 
drills — Sowing corn broadcast — Preparation of corn land 
— Clover — Time to cut clover for the silo— Other silage 
crops -- - 13-35 

CHAPTER II. 

Silos — General considerations — Descriptions of different kinds 
of silos — Round wooden silos — Specifications for a 300- 
ton round wooden silo — Chute for round silos — Descrip- 
tions of round wooden silos — New Jersey Experiment 
Station silo — Wisconsin Experiment Station silos — Mis- 
souri Experiment Station silo— South Dakota Experi- 
ment Station silo — Stave silos— Specifications for a 100- 
ton stave silo — Square or rectangular wooden silos — 
Silos in the barn — Separate square or rectangular wooden 
silos — Silos with horizontal girts — Stone or brick silos — 
Grout silos— Metal silos — Silo stacks — Pits in the ground 
—Silo literature — Preservation of silos — Cost of silos.. 36-138 

5 



6 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

PAGE 

Silage — Filling the silo — Cutting the corn in the field — Whole 
vs. cut silage — Siloing corn ''ears and all" — The filling 
process — Power and cutters for silo filling — Pneumatic 
elevators— Fast or slow filling — Danger from carbonic- 
acid poisoning in silos— Covering the siloed fodder — 
"Dry " silage — Shredded silage — Clover silage — Freezing 
of silage — Cost of silage —Chemical composition of silage 
— Relation of moisture and acidity in silage — Sweet vs. 
sour silage — Digestibility of silage— Losses of food ma- 
terials in the silo— Losses in field-curing fodder corn — 
Necessary losses in siloing corn — Necessary losses in silo- 
ing clover 139-189 

CHAPTER IV. 

Feeding of silage — Silage for milch cows — For steers — For 
breeding bulls— For horses — For mules — For sheep — 
For swine— For poultry 190-208 

CHAPTER V. 

Comparison of silage and other feeds — Economy of produc- 
tion — Corn silage vs. roots — Corn silage vs. hay — Corn 
silage vs. fodder corn— Comparative feeding experi- 
ments — Corn silage vs. roots — Corn silage vs. dry 
roughage - - - ...209-222 

CHAPTER VI. 
The silo in modern agriculture 223 



INTRODUCTION. 



The history of the silo dates back to antiquity. 
Ancient writers speak of the practice of burying grain 
in underground pits to save it for future use or to hide 
it from their enemies^, and the evidence at hand goes 
to show that semi-barbaric peoples in the different parts 
of the world have known and practiced this method. 
Green forage was preserved in the same way in the early 
history of the races of Northern Europe, notably in 
Sweden and the Baltic provinces, where the uncertainty 
of the weather and the low summer temperature ren- 
dered difficult the proper curing of the hay. It was not, 
however, until toward the middle of the present cen- 
tury that the practice of preserving green fodder by 
means of pits in the ground became more known. The 
method was especially practiced in central Europe, 
where large quantities of green leaves and tops were 
available every fall in the sugar-beet districts; also 
green forage, such as Indian corn fodder, green clover, 
grass, etc., was treated by this method; the fodder be- 
ing placed in pits ten to twelve feet square, or larger, 
and as many feet deep; these were often lined with 
wood, and puddled below and at the sides with clay. 
The fodder was spread evenly in the pits, and well 
trampled down; when the pit was full the whole was 
covered with boards and a layer of earth one to two 
feet thick; such pits would hold nearly ten tons when 
full. It is stated that the silage thus obtained "re- 

(7) 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

mained green and was well liked, even by sheep." This 
practice slowly spread; in the sixties over 2000 tons 
of Indian corn was thus made into silage annually in 
a single small German province where dairying is an 
important industry. 

One of the earliest advocates of the practice was 
M. Eeihlen of Stuttgart, Germany. His communica- 
tions on the subject gave an impetus to a large amount 
of experimentation and study along this line, both 
among German and French farmers. The French 
farmer, Auguste Goffart, whose name by most writers 
has been connected with the origin of silage, in 1877 
published his book, "Manual of the Culture and Siloing 
of Maize and other Green Crops,'^ which book is the first 
monograph on the subject ever published, and embodies 
the experience and results of twenty-five years' study 
of the problem by the author. While Goffart has no 
claim to priority in inventing the method of siloing 
green fodders, he perfected and applied it on a large 
scale, and, in publishing the results of his experience, 
brought the subject to the general attention of farmers ; 
he may, therefore, justly be called the "Father of Mod- 
ern Silage." 

The earliest mention of the subject in the United 
States was through accounts of European experience in 
our agricultural press ; the first complete description of 
the system was given in a paper on "The French Mode 
of Curing Forage," published in the Annual Eeport of 
the United States Department of Agriculture for 1875. 
Goffart's book was translated in 1879, by Mr. J. B. 
Brown of New York; this translation, as well as Dr. 
J. M. Bailey's "Book of Ensilage," published in 1880, 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

first made the subject of silos and silage more generally 
known among American farmers, and the system soon 
found its enthusiastic followers in the United States. 
Since that time a wave of silo discussion and silo build- 
ing has spread over the whole continent, and, as a result, 
we find to-day silos practically in every State in the 
Union, thousands upon thousands being filled each year 
with green corn or clover, furnishing farm animals with 
a palatable, succulent feed, not only through the winter 
and spring, but in dair}^ districts through the whole 
year. 

The first silo built in the United States is said to 
be that erected by Mr. F. Morris of Maryland, in 1876. 
The number of silos in this country at the present time 
can not be stated with certainty in the absence of of- 
ficial or other reliable statistics on the subject; but 
careful estimates — which, from the nature of things, 
are but good guesses — place the number at 300,000 or 
more. iN'ew York, Massachusetts, Penns3dvania, Wis- 
consin, and all other States where dairying is an im- 
portant industry, have numbers ranging from several 
hundreds up into the thousands. \Ye find silos in Maine 
and in California, in Washington and in Georgia, in 
the North and in the South. They are at the present 
most abundant where the dairy industry is of prime 
importance; but wherever stock raising is followed we 
may, in general, expect to find them. In England, where 
the silo was introduced a little later than in the United 
States, there were only six silos in 1882; but accord- 
ing to official statistics the number was 600 in 1884, 
1183 in 1885, 1605 in 1886, and 2694 in 1887. No 
later statistics are available. English farmers have the 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

reputation of being, and doubtless as a rule are, more 
conservative in the changing of old methods or in the 
adoption of new ones than their American cousins; we 
can not, therefore, consider the figures given an over- 
estimate of the present number of silos in the United 
States. 

Unwarranted claims for silage were often made dur- 
ing the early days of the silo movement by enthusiasts 
in this country and abroad. A German agricultural 
writer predicted the day as likely to come when dry 
hay would be obtainable only in drug stores. While no 
American writer or S23eaker, to my knowledge, was so 
carried away by his enthusiasm, excessive statements 
and reports were, nevertheless, often indulged in, which 
could not stand the light of further experience and 
investigation. The process of siloing forage, as we 
have seen, is practically as old as hay-making; but it 
is only during the last couple of decades that the process 
has been systematically studied and perfected. Thanks 
to the zealous work of the agricultural experiment sta- 
tions in this and other countries, and to the mass of 
practical experience accumulated, our store of definite 
knowledge on the subject has now been greatly en- 
riched, and many problems previously standing in the 
way of success have been solved. The siloing of green 
fodders is no longer an experiment; the results may be 
foretold with as much certainty as in case of any indus- 
try depending on the action of ferments. With our 
present knowledge of the subject, we therefore believe 
that we can place the silo where it belongs and give it 
its due importance. 

The effort of the author will be to give, in the follow- 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

ing pages, a plain and accurate account of the most 
important facts in connection with silage, and to furnish 
the beginner with such information concerning the 
building of silos, the making of silage, and its proper 
feeding, as will enable him to understand the important 
features of the method, and to adopt it in his system of 
farming. 

A fe"\\' definitions of the terms used in this book may 
be in order at this place. 

In the modern meaning of the word, a silo signifies 
any air-tight structure used for the preservation of 
forage in a succulent condition. The feed taken out 
of the silo is silage (formerly and originally called 
ensilage).' For the process of preserving fodders in a 
silo, several verbs are used by writers on agricultural 
topics and are given in our standard dictionaries ; among 
these the author prefers the- verb, to silo; we thus silo 
corn, clover, etc., and the product is corn silage, clover 
silage, etc. The term siloist, a person making and feed- 
ing silage, is occasionally met witli, and has also some- 
times been used in this book. The distinction made by 
some writers between silage, the feed, and ensilage, the 
process by which silage is made, is one rarely met with 
outside of books. By common usage, the prefix en has 
now been dropped in ensilage, the term silage having 
been generally adopted by farmers and agricultural 
writers. 

According to American custom, the term corn, spoken 
of in this book, means Indian corn, or maize {Zea 
Mays), and corn silage, silage made from Indian corn; 
fodder corn means the whole corn plant grown for for- 
age, and corn fodder or corn sialics {stover), the husked 
plant grown for the sake of the ears. 



MKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



CHAPTER I.— SILAGE CROPS. 
A. INDIAN CORN. 

Indian corn is, above all other plants, the main silage 
crop in our country, and is likely always to remain so. 
A book on silage for American farmers is therefore of 
necessity largely a description of the preparation of the 
corn cr'op for the silo, and the feeding thereof. In view 
of this fact, we shall discuss in the following pages, first 
of all, the making and feeding of corn silage, and then 
take up other silo crops, according to their importance. 

Development of the Com Platit. 

In order to obtain a correct idea of the corn plant, it 
is necessary to examine its life history somewhat in 
detail. A kernel of corn, planted in a sufficiently moist 
and warm soil, will sprout within four to six days, 
sending out the radicle, growing downward, and the 
plumule, from which the different organs of the plant 
gradually develop. The starch, albuminoids, and ash 
materials in the corn germ, and in the rest of the kernel, 
furnish the young plant with nourishment until it is 
sufficiently developed to draw upon the soil and the air 
for the elements required for the upbuilding of its 
structure and of the various organs essential to its life 
and to the reproduction of the species. 

The most exhaustive study of the life history of 
Indian corn has been conducted by the German scien- 

(13) 



14 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



tist, Doctor Hornberger (published in 1882). We shall 
here briefly give some of the main results of his investi- 
gation^ bearing directly on the growth of Indian corn 
from the earjy stages till maturity. Analyses were made 
once every week; the plaiits analyzed on June 18th w^ere 
6 to 7 inches high; the last sample w^as taken on Sep- 
tember 10th, when the corn was almost ripe. The per- 
centage composition of the dry matter of the different 
samples was shown in the following table. 
Percentage Composition of Dry Matter of Samples 
OF Fodder Corn. 





Per Cent 


Min- 






starch, 






Date. 


Water iu 


eral 


Crude 


Crude 


Sugar, 


Crude 


Am- 




Samples 


Matter. 


Protein. 


Fiber. 


etc. 


Fat. 


ides. 


June 18.. 




9.49 


30.83 








9.80 


" 25.. 


89.27 


8.45 


28.17 


17.82 


41.67 


3.19 


8.05 


July 2.. 


90.27 


7-74 


27.21 


21.06 


40.72 


.3.02 


8.94 


" 9.. 


89.30 


8.35 


24.90 


22.78 


41.04 


2.29 


9.40 


" 16.. 


89.44 


8.15 


22.94 


23.92 


43.34 


2.26 


8.18 


" 23.. 


88.37 


6.35 


17.32 


24.43 


49.60 


2.03 


6.05 


" 30.. 


88.09 


6.02 


15.14 


24.95 


51.41 


2.07 


5.26 


Aug. 6.. 


88.25 


5.58 


13.12 


26.23 


53.23 


1.55 


5.05 


" 13.. 


88.07 


5.31 


12.16 


26.26 


54.55 


1.28 


4.06 


" 20.. 


86.02 


4.83 


10.71 


25.62 


57.33 


1.18 


4.08 


" 27.. 




4.72 


10.45 


25.19 


58.15 


1.05 


4.57 


Sept. 3.. 




4.30 


10.08 


23.37 


60.45 


1.43 


3.89 


" 10.. 


80.45 


4.29 


9.67 


22.63 


61.52 


1.60 


2.80 



We notice from this table that the composition of 
the dry matter of the fodder corn varies greatly with 
the season. The young plant is relatively rich in min- 
eral matter, crude protein, amides, and crude fat ; it is 
relatively poor in crude fiber and in nitrogen-free ex- 
tract (starch, sugar, etc.). The nitrogenous (flesh- 
forming) constituents predominate in the early stages 
of growth, and the non-nitrogenous (heat-producing) 
in the latter stages; the nutritive ratio (i. e., the pro- 
portion between flesh-forming and heat-producing nut- 



SILAGE CROPS. 



15 



rients), therefore, widens with the development of the 
plant. 

The percentages of water, ash, protein, and amides 
decrease, and those of nitrogen-free extract and crude 
liber increase as the plant grows older. The changes 
occurring in the composition of plants during their 
growth, in the majority of cases, follow this general 
hiw; it will, therefore, not be necessary to give results 
as to the changes in the composition of other silage 
crops with increasing age of the plants. 

Considering next the total quantities of food materials 
found in fodder corn by Hornberger, at the different 
stages of growth, we have the following table : 

Yield of Food Ingredients, in Grams. * 





Green 
Wt.of 




1000 1*1 ants Contained 






Crude 




Starch 






DATE. 


one 


Dry 


Ash. 


Protein 


Crude 


Sugar 


Crude 


Am- 




plant. 


Matter. 






Fiber. 


etc. 


Fat. 


ides. 


June 18. . . 




.10 
.50 


14.8 
42.6 


48.1 
142 








15.3 


" 25... 


4.7 


89.8 


210 


16.1 


40.6 


July 2... 


21 


2.1 


161 


566 


438 


847 


63.8 


186 


" 9... 


39 


4.1 


343 


1020 


933 


1681 


94. 


385 


" 16... 


78 


8.3 


674 


1898 


1896 


3585 


187 


677 


" 23... 


161 


18.8 


1190 


3349 


4581 


9301 


380 


1136 


" 30... 


276 


33.8 


1978 


4972 


8194 


16884 


679 


1737 


Aug. 6... 


468 


55.0 


3069 


7215 


14430 


29266 


851 


3780 


" 13... 


565 


67.4 


3576 


8192 


17692 


36746 


865 


2735 


" 20... 


591 


82.6 


8991 


8848 


21164 


47357 


974 


3369 


'* 27... 




108.7 
121.2 


5131 
5215 


11369 
12218 


27394 
38311 


63233 
73247 


1143 
1739 


4970 


Sept. 3... 




4722 


" 10... 


eii 


119.4 


5120 


11554 


37033 


73473 


1906 


3345 



■1,000 grams equal 2.2 lbs. avoirdupois. 

Professor Ladd, in 1889, in a very exhaustive study 
of the corn plant, analyzed fodder corn cut at five dif- 
ferent stages of growth, from full tasseling to maturity. 
The results obtained will nicely supplement the pre- 
ceding data. 



16 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



Chemical Changes in the Corn Crop. 



Yield per Acre. 



Gross Weight 

Water in Crop 

Dry Matter 

Ash 

Crude Protein 

Crude Fiber 

Nitrogen-free Extract 

(starch, sugar, etc). 

Crude Fat 



Tas- 

seled, 

July 30, 



Pounds 
18045 
16436 
1619 
138.9 
239.8 
514.2 

653.9 

72 9. 



Silked, 
Aug. 9. 



Pounds 
25745 
22666 
3078 
201.3 
436.8 
872.9 

1399.3 

167.8 



Milk, 
Aug. 21 



Pounds 

32600 

27957 

4643 

232.2 

478.7 

1262.0 

2441.3 
228.9 



Glazed, 
Sept. 7 



Pounds 

32295 

25093 

7202 

302.5 

643.9 

1755.9 

4239.8 
260.0 



Ripe, 
Sept. 23 



Pounds 

28460 

20542 

7918 

364.2 

677.8 

1734.0 

4827.6 
314.3 



The data given in the preceding tables show how 
rapidly the yield of food materials increases with the 
advancing age of the corn and also that the increase 
during the later stages of growth comes largely on the 
nitrogen-free extract (starch, sugar, etc.). A number 
of American experiment stations have determined the 
increase during the stages previous to maturity, with 
the average results shown in the following computa- 
tion: 

Increase in Food Ingredients from Tasseling to 
Ripeness. 





Variety. 


Stage of Maturity. 


Gain iu per cent 

between first and 

last cutting:. 


Experiment 
Station. 


First 
Cutting. 


Last 
Cutting. 




t- o 




OQ 

63 

•eg 


Cornell,N.Y. 
(( 

Geneva, N.Y. 
New Hamp. 
Pennsylvania 
Vermont. 


Pride of the 
North .... 

Pride of the 
North 

King Philip. 

Av. of 4Var. 

Av.of lOVar. 

Av.of 2Var. 
<« 


Bloom 

< < 

Tasseled 

< < 

< < 

Bloom 


Mature 
Nearly 

mature 
Mature 
Glazed 
Mature 
Glazed 


150 

217 
389 
112 
155 
122 
204 


90 

134 

183 

50 

50 
81 


129 

374 

335 

84 


169 

300 
462 
130 


Averages of 


all trials 


193 


98 


230 


265 



SILAGE CROPS. 



1-^ 



We thus find that the largest amount of food materials 
in the corn crop is not obtained until the corn is well 
ripened. When a corn plant has reached its total 
growth in height it has, as shown by the results given 
in the last table, attained only one-third to one-half 
the weight of dry matter it will gain if left to grow to 
maturity ; hence we see the wisdom of postponing cut- 
ting the corn for the silo, as in general for forage pur- 
poses, until late in the season. 

The tables given in the preceding, and our discussion 
so far, have taken into account the total, and not the 
digestible components of the corn. Early German di- 
gestion work goes to show that the digestibility of plants 
decreases as they grow older; the following average 
digestion coefficients for green corn, obtained in Ameri- 
can digestion experiments, embody all work done by 
our experiment stations on this point up to date; the 
computation is made by Professor Lindsey of Massa- 
chusetts experiment station. 



Digestion Coefpicientb for Green Dent Fodder Corn. 



Stacks op Growth 

Immature 

In milk 

Glazing 

Mature 



JSo. of 


Dry 


Crude 


Crude 


N-free 


Trials. 


MAtter. 


Protein 


Fiber. 


Extract 


11 


68 


66 


67 


71 


9 


70 


61 


64 


76 


9 


67 


54 


51 


75 


4 


65 


51 


55 


72 



Ether 
Extract 

68 
78 
78 
73 



It will be noticed that there is a slight decrease in 
the digestibility of the dry matter and a marked de- 
crease in that of crude protein and crude fiber with the 
greater maturity of the fodder. The preceding trials 



18 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

were made with different lots of fodder, so that they can 
only be compared on account of the fairly large number 
of trials made in each group. 

Eesults of other trials corroborate the conclusion 
drawn that older plants are somewhat less digestible 
than young plants. There is, however, no such dif- 
ference in the digestibility of the total dry matter or 
its components as is found in the total quantities ob- 
tained from plants at the different stages of growth, 
and the total yields of digestible matter in the corn will 
therefore be greater at maturity, or directly before this 
time, than at any earlier stage of growth. Hence we 
find that the general practice of cutting corn for the 
silo at the time when the corn is in the roasting stage, 
is good science and in accord with our best knowledge 
on the subject. 

Another reason why cutting at a late period of 
growth is preferable in siloing corn is found in the fact 
that the quality of the silage made from such corn is, 
as we shall see later on, greatly better than that ob- 
tained from green immature corn. 

Varieties of Com to be Planted for the Silo. 

The varieties to be planted for the silo must differ 
according to local conditions of climate, soil, etc. The 
ideal silage corn, according to Shelton, is a variety hav- 
ing a tall, slender, short-jointed stalk, well eared, and 
bearing an abundance of foliage. The leaves and ears 
should make up a large percentage of the total weight, 
and the yield per acre should be heavy. The lower 
leaves should keep green until the crop is ready to har- 



SILAGE CROPS. 19 

vest, and it is desirable to have the plant stool well and 
throvv^ out tall grain-bearing suckers. A silage variety 
should mature late, the later the better, so long as it 
only matures, as a long-growing, late-maturing sort 
will furnish much more feed from a given area than 
one that ripens early. 

In the early stages of siloing corn, in our country, 
the effort was to obtain an immense yield of fodder 
per acre, no matter whether the corn ripened or not. 
I^arge yields were, doubtless, often obtained with these 
big varieties, although I doubt that the actual yields 
ever came up to the claims made. Bailey's Mammoth 
Ensilage Corn, "if planted upon good corn land, in good 
condition, well matured, with proper cultivation,'' was 
guaranteed to produce from forty to seventy -five tons 
of green fodder to the acre, "just right for ensilage." 
We now know that the immense Southern varieties of 
corn, when grown to an immature stage, as must neces- 
sarily be the case in Northern States, may contain less 
than ten per cent of dry matter, the rest, more than 
nine-tenths of the total weight, being made up of 
water. This is certainly a remarkable fact, when we 
remember that skim-milk, even when obtained by the 
separator process, will contain nearly ten per cent of 
solid matter. 

In speaking of corn planted so as to be cut for forage 
at an immature stage. Professor Eobertson of Canada 
said at a Wisconsin Farmers' Institute, "Fodder corn 
sowed broadcast does not meet the needs of milking 
cows. Such a fodder is mainly a device of a thought- 
less farmer to fool his cows into believing that they have 



20 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



been fed, when they have only been filled up." The 
same applies with equal strength to the use of large, 
immature Southern varieties for fodder, or for the silo, 
in Northern States. 

In comparative variety tests with corn in the North, 
Southern varieties have usually been found to furnish 
larger quantities per acre of both green fodder and total 
dry matter in the fodder, than the smaller Northern 
varieties. As an average of seven culture trials. Pro- 
fessor Jordan thus obtained the following results at the 
Maine experiment station. 

Comparative Yields of Southern Corn and Maine 
Field Corn as Grown in Maine, 1888-1893. 





Southern Corn. 


Maine Field Corn. 






Dry 

Substance. 


Digestible 
Matter. 




Dry 

Substance. 


Digestible 
Matter. 




Per 

Cent. 


Lbs. 


Per 

Ct. 


Lbs. 


Per 
Cent. 


Lbs. 


Per 

Ct. 


Lbs. 


Maximum 
Minimum 
Average . . 


46,340 
26,295 
34,761 


16.58 
12.30 
14.50 


6,237 
3,234 
5,036 


69 
61 
65 


3,923 
2,102 
3,251 


29,400 
14,212 
22,269 


25.43 
13.55 
18.75 


7,064 
2.415 
4,224 


78 
70 
72 


4,945 
1,715 
3,076 



It will be noticed that the average percentage digesti- 
bility of the dry substance is 65 per cent for the South- 
ern corn, and 72 per cent for the Maine field corn, all 
the results obtained for the former varieties being lower 
than those obtained for the latter. It is of importance 
to examine the detailed results of digestion experiments 
with these two kinds of fodder. The average digestion 
coefficients obtained in trials at the Maine station are 
as follows. 



SILAGE CROPS. 



21 



Comparative Digestibility of Varieties of Corn 
Grown Under Similar Conditions. 



- 




s 

o 


•So 




rSfl 
*> 7 
SPh 

o 

76.5 
71.0 

5.5 


75.5 
65.2 

10.3 




Field Fodder Corn and Sil- 
age, 7 samples, 17 trials 

Southern Fodder Corn and 
Silage, 5 samples, 12 trials 


72. S 
64.6 


74.6 
66.5 


36.8 
39.7 


65.1 
59.6 


74.9 
66.3 


Difference in favor of field 
corn 


7.-; 


8.1 





5.5 


8.6 



As a result of the lower digestion coefficients for the 
Southern varieties, the difference in the yield of diges- 
tible matter — the real important factor to be consid- 
ered — is less marked. While the general result for the 
five years is slightly in favor of the Southern varieties, 
as far as the yield of digestible matter is concerned, 
the fact should not be lost sight of, as called attention 
to by Professor Jordan, that an average of 6 J tons 
more of material has annually to be handled over sev- 
eral times, in case of these varieties of corn, in order 
to gain 175 pounds more of digestible matter per acre; 
we therefore conclude that the smaller, less watery 
variety of corn really proved the more profitable. 

At other Northern stations similar results, or results 
more favorable to the Northern varieties, have been 
obtained, showing that the modern practice of growing 
only such corn for the silo as will mature in the par- 
ticular locality of each farmer, is borne out by the 
results of careful culture tests. 



32 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE 

Methods of Planting Corn. 

Thickness of Planting.— The thicker the stand of 
a crop, the larger the proportion of stalks and foliage 
to grain; with corn we thus find that thin planting will 
produce perfect plants, with well-developed, large ears, 
while close planting will produce much fodder and only 
few ears, a large proportion of which will be nubbins. 
The reason for this will be easily understood at a mo- 
ment's reflection: Plants need a great deal of light, 
heat, and moisture to reach perfect development. Where 
the stand is too thick, one plant will shade another, and 
the supply of sunshine and moisture (in our climate 
perhaps particularly the latter) will be insufficient to 
bring each plant further than to the formation of rich 
foliage and a small proportion of ears of an imperfect 
size ; the greater part of the food materials of the plant 
elaborated will, therefore, in this case, remain in the 
stalks and foliage. In planting corn for the silo we 
want the largest quantities of food materials that the 
land is capable of producing. This, evidently, can be 
obtained by a medium thickness of planting. If too 
thin or too thick planting be practiced, the total yields 
of food materials obtained will be decreased — in the 
former case, because of the small stand of plants; in 
the latter, because of insufficiency of light, moisture, 
and other conditions necessary to bring the plants for- 
ward to full growth. 

A single experiment may be given to show the effect 
of the distance of planting on the quantity and quality 
of the corn crop. White dent corn was planted on six 
one-twentieth-acre plats at the Connecticut experiment 
station, as follows: One, two, and four stalks every 



SILAGE CROPS. 



23 



four feet in the row, and two, four, and eight stalks 
to the foot. The following yields of cured fodder and 
dry matter were obtained from the different plats. 

Yield op Field-cured Crop. 



-*^ 


Distance op Planting. 


Gross 


Dry 

Matter. 


Water-free Substance in 


CU 




Weight 


Kernels 


Cobs. 


stover. 


A 
B 
C 
D 
E 
F 


One Stalk in four feet. . . 
Two stalks in four feet. . 
Four stalks in four feet. . 
Two stalks to one foot. . 
Four stalks to one foot. . 
Eight stalks to one foot. . 


lbs. 
168.0 
320.0 
457.5 
491.0 
522.0 
532.0 


lbs. 
104.3 
201.6 
307.2 
317.6 
297.2 
260.3 


lbs. 
50.5 
102.2 
145.3 

105.4 
70.4 
48.4 


lbs. 

11.8 

20.4 

32.1 

21.1 
19.1 
13.5 


lbs. 

42.0 

79.0 

129.8 

191.1 
207.7 

198.4 



The highest yield of the field-cured crop was ob- 
tained with the thickest planting, while most dr}'' mat- 
ter was obtained by growing two stalks to a foot. The 
highest yield of water-free kernels was at one stalk to a 
foot, and of stover at four stalks to a foot. The fol- 
lowing table shows the proportions of kernels, cobs, 
and stover in the different plats. 

Proportion of Kernel, Cobs, and Stover in Corn Crop, 
IN Per Cent. 



Distance op Planting. 


Kernels 


Cobs. 


Stover. 


Water 

Content oi 

Crop. 


One stalk in four feet 

Two stalks in foar feet 

Four stalks in four feet 

Two stalks to one foot 


48.4 
50.7 
47.3 
33.1 
24.0 
18.6 


11.3 

10.1 

10.4 

6.6 

6.4 

5.1 


40.3 
39.2 
42.3 
60.3 
69.6 
76.3 


37.9 
37.1 
32.9 
35.3 


Four stalks to one foot 

Eight stalks to one foot 


43.1 
51.0 



We notice that the water content of the field-cured 
crop increased as the distance of planting decreased; 
that is, thicker seeding gave more watery fodder. 



24 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



The fact that thin seeding favors the perfection of 
well-developed, strong plants is illustrated by the fol- 
lowing results, obtained in the same experiments, show- 
ing the yields of different parts of the corn plant from 
1,000 seed kernels for each of the distances named. 

Yields of Different Parts of Corn Plant from 1,000 
Seed Kernels, in Pounds. 





cured 
•op. 


Water-free Substance. 


Distance op Planting. 


aa 










SO 

0) 




O 


> 

o 


"3 
o 




f^ 


M 


O 


CO 


H 


One stalk in four feet 


1,23G 


371 


87 


309 


767 


Two stalks in four feet. . 


1176 


37G 


75 


290 


741 


Four stalks in four feet. . 


841 


267 


59 


239 


565 


Two stalks to one foot. . . 


451 


97 


19 


176 


292 


Four stalks to one foot. . . 


239 


32 


9 


96 


137 


Eight stalks to one foot. . 


122 


11 


3 


46 


60 



It would not be safe to conclude that similar results 
as those given in the table would be obtained in all 
kinds of soils and seasons. The number of plants which 
can be brought to perfect development on a certain 
piece of land depends upon the state of fertility of the 
land, the character of the season and other factors, and 
is therefore subject to considerable variations. The re- 
sults given in the table plainly show, however, that the 
practice to be followed in planting Indian corn for fod- 
der must differ from that used in planting for ear corn. 
The distance in planting corn for the sake of the grain, 
differs greatly in different localities. The old Indian 
v/ay of planting in hills, four feet both ways, dropping 
four to five kernels in each hill, has been followed gen- 
erally in the corn belt. In the New England States corn 



SILAGE CROPS. 25 

iS;, according to Professor Morrow, usually planted in 
hills three feet apart, with three kernels to the hill, 
while in some Southern States it is planted in hills five 
feet apart, with only one stalk in the hill. The ordinary 
Southern practice is, I believe, to plant in rows three to 
four feet apart, wdth stalks every twelve to eighteen 
inches in the rows. These methods will secure a large 
proportion of perfect ears, but not the maximum crop 
of dry matter and its constituents in the total plant, 
which is wanted in growing corn for the silo. Numerous 
experiments have shown that under ordinary conditions 
in our country, better results in this direction may be 
obtained by planting the corn in hills three or even two 
feet apart, or in drills three or four feet apart, with 
plants six to eight inches apart in the row. We find 
that the practice of our best farmers is in accordance 
with the teachings of these experiments. In growing 
corn for the silo, it is therefore generally recommended 
to plant in hills or drills in the manner mentioned, 
which Avill give about a square foot of ground to each 
corn plant. 

Since the conditions of moisture, temperature, and 
fertility of the land, as well as other factors influencing 
the growth of crops, are not exactly alike in any two 
succeeding years, it is evident that any definite practice 
of thickness of planting adopted will not necessarily 
produce the best results every year, but such a practice 
should be followed as will be apt to produce the best 
average results for a number of years in each particular 
locality. 

Planting in Hills or in Drills. — Experiments 
conducted at a number of experiment stations teach us 



26 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

that it makes little if any difference, so far as the yield 
obtained is concerned, whether the corn be planted in 
hills or in drills, when the land is kept free from weeds 
in both cases. The yield seems more dependent on the 
number of plants growing on a certain area of land 
than on the arrangements of planting the corn. Hills 
four feet each way, with four stalks to the hill, will thus 
usually give about the same yields as hills two feet 
apart, with two stalks in the hill, or drills four feet 
apart, with stalks one foot apart in the row, etc. The 
question of planting corn in hills or in drills is there- 
fore largely one of greater or less labor in keeping the 
land free from weeds by the two methods. This will 
depend on the character of the land; where the land is 
uneven, and check-rowing of the corn difficult, or when 
the land is free from weeds, drill planting is preferable ; 
while, conversely, on large level fields, as on our Western 
prairies, the corn may more easily and cheaply be kept 
free from weeds if planted in hills and check-rowed. 

When the corn is to be cut with a corn harvester or 
with a sled cutter, it should be planted in drills, so as to 
facilitate the cutting. 

Sowing Corn Broadcast. — Corn should be planted 
in hills or drills, and not broadcast. The objection to 
sowing corn broadcast is that the land cannot be kept 
free from weeds in this case, except by hand labor ; that 
more seed is required, and that plants will shade one 
another, and therefore not reach full development, from 
lack of sufficient sunshine and moisture. As a result, 
the yield will be greatly diminished. In an experiment 
conducted at the Geneva CM. Y.) experiment station in 
1889, the average yield of green fodder per acre from 



SILAGE CROPS. 27 

King Philip corn was 12,780 lbs., against 14,077 lbs. 
and 16,967 lbs., for drills and hills, respectively; the 
average weights of single plants were : Broadcast, 0.73 
lbs.; drills, 1.06 lbs.; hills, 1.24 lbs.; the average num- 
ber of quarts of seed per acre used was 25 1-3, 14 4-9, 
and 10 2-9 quarts, for broadcast, drills, and hills, re- 
spectively. 

Preparation of Com Laud. 

Corn will give best results coming after clover. The 
preparation of the land for growing corn is the same 
whether ear corn or forage is the object. Land intended 
for corn should be in good condition; in fact, it can 
hardly be too rich. Fall plowing is practiced by many 
successful corn growers. The seed is planted on care- 
fully prepared ground at such a time as convenient 
and advisable. Other things being equal, the earlier 
the planting the better. "The early crop may fail, but 
the late crop is almost sure to fail." After planting, 
the soil should be kept pulverized and thoroughly cul- 
tivated. Shallow cultivation will ordinarily give better 
results than deep cultivation, as the former method suf- 
fices to destroy the weeds and to preserve the soil mois- 
ture, which are the essential points sought in cultivat- 
ing crops. The cultivation should be no more frequent 
than is necessary for the complete eradication of weeds. 
It has been found that the yield of corn may be de- 
creased by too frequent, as well as by insufficient, culti- 
vation. The general rule may be given to cultivate as 
often, but no oftener, than is necessary to kill the weeds, 
or to keep the soil pulverized. In the majority of cases 
one cultivation a week until the corn shades the ground 
will be found sufficient. 



28 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

B. CLOVER. 

Clover is second to Indian corn in importance as a 
silage crop. We are but beginning to appreciate the 
value of clover in modern agriculture. It has been 
shown that the legumes^, the family to which clover 
belongs, are the only common forage plants able to fix 
the free nitrogen of the air; that is, convert it into 
compounds that may be utilized for the nutrition of 
animals. Clover and other legumes, therefore, draw 
largely on the air for the most expensive and valuable 
fertilizing ingredient, nitrogen, and for this reason, 
as well as on account of their deep roots, which bring 
fertilizing elements up near the surface, they enrich 
the land upon which they grow. Being a more nitro- 
genous feed than corn or the grasses, clover supplies a 
good deal of the protein compounds (flesh-forming 
substances) required by farm animals for the mainte- 
nance of their bodies and for the production of milk, 
wool, or meat. By feeding clover, a smaller purchase of 
high-priced concentrated feed stuffs, like flour- or oil- 
mill refuse products, is therefore rendered necessary 
than when corn is fed, and on account of its high fer- 
tilizing value it enables the farmer feeding it to keep up 
the fertility of his land. 

When properly made, clover silage is an ideal 
feed for nearly all kinds of stock. Aside from 
its higher protein content it has an advantage 
over corn silage in point of lower cost of produc- 
tion. The late A. F. Noyes, of Dodge County, Wis., 
who siloed 1200 tons of clover during his last eight 
years, estimated the cost of one ton of clover silage at 
70 cents to $1, against $1 to $1.25 per ton of corn silage. 



SILAGE CROPS. 



^d 



His average yields per acre of green clover were about 
twelve tons. 

Clover silage is superior to clover hay on account of 
its succulence and greater palatability, as well as its 
higher feeding value. The last-mentioned point is 
mainly due to the fact that all the parts of the clover 
plant are preserved in the silo, with a small unavoidable 
loss in fermentation, while in hay-making, leaves and 
tender parts, which contain about two-thirds of the pro- 
tein compounds, are often largely lost by abrasion. 

In spite of the fact that there have been many failures 
in the past in siloing clover, it may easily and cheaply be 
placed in a silo and preserved in a perfect condition. 
The failures reported are largely due to a faulty con- 
struction of the silo. Clover does not pack as well as 
the heavy green corn, and therefore requires weighting, 
or greater depth in the silo, in order to sufficiently ex- 
clude the air. 

Time to Cut Clover for the Silo. — The yield of 
food materials obtained from clover at different stages 
of growth has been studied by a number of scientists. 
The following table giving the results of an investiga- 
tion conducted by Professor Atwater will show the total 
quantities of food materials secured at four different 
stages of growth of red clover. 

Yield per Acre of Red Clover — in Pounds. 



Stage of 
Cutting. 


Green 
Weight. 


Dry 
Matter. 


Crude 
Protein 


Crude 
Fiber. 


N-free 
Extract 


Crude 
Fat. 


Ash. 


Just before 

bloom 

Full bloom 

Nearly out of 

bloom 

Nearly ripe 


3,570 
3,650 

4,960 
3,910 


1,385 
1,401 

1,750 
1.523 


198 
189 

230 
158 


384 
390 

528 

484 


664 
682 

837 
746 


24 
33 

31 
36 


115 
107 

129 
99 



30 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

Professor Hunt obtained 3,600 pounds of hay per acre 
from clover cut in full bloom, and 3,260 pounds when 
three-fourths of the heads were dead. The yields of dry 
matter in the two cases were 2,526 pounds, and 2,427 
pounds, resjDectively. All components, except crude 
fiber, yielded less per acre in the second cutting. Jor- 
dan found the same result, comparing the yields and 
composition of clover cut when in bloom, some heads 
dead, and heads all dead, the earliest cutting giving 
the maximum yield of dry matter, and of all compon- 
ents except crude fiber. 

The common practice of farmers is to cut clover for 
the silo when in full bloom, or when the first single 
heads are beginning to wilt, that is, when right for hay 
making, and we notice that the teachings of the investi- 
gations made are in conformity with this practice. 

C. OTHER SILAGE CROPS. 

A large number of crops, besides corn and clover, 
have been siloed successfully in this and other coun- 
tries. All are, however, of less general importance as 
silage crops, compared with these, being cut for the silo 
only in certain localities, or occasionally and in small 
quantities, as a matter of experiment. 

We shall in the following give a brief mention of the 
main crops adapted for siloing purposes, aside from the 
two crops already mentioned. 

Alfalfa (lucern) is the great coarse forage plant of 
the West, and in irrigated districts will yield more food 
materials per acre of land than perhaps any other crop. 
Three to four cuttings, each yielding a ton to a ton and 
a half of hay, are common in these regions, and the 



SILAGE CROPS. 31 

yields obtained are often much higher. While the 
large bulk of the crop is cured as ha}^, alfalfa is also 
of considerable importance as a silage crop in dairy 
sections of the Western States. As with red clover, re- 
ports of failure in siloing alfalfa are on record, but first- 
class alfalfa silage can be readily made in deep, modern 
silos, when the crop is cut when in full bloom. In the 
opinion of dairymen who have had large experience in 
siloing alfalfa, sweet alfalfa silage is more easily made 
than good alfalfa hay. 

What has been said in regard to the siloing of clover 
refers to alfalfa as well. Alfalfa silage compares favor- 
ably with clover silage, both in chemical composition 
and in feeding value. It is richer in flesh-forming sub- 
stances (protein) than clover silage, or any other kind of 
silage, and makes a most valuable feed for farm animals, 
especially young stock and dairy cows. 

Sorghum is sometimes siloed in the Western and 
Middle States. It is sown in drills, 3J inches apart, 
with a stalk every six to ten inches in the row, and is 
cut when the kernels are in the dough stage, or before. 
According to Shelton, the medium-growing saccharine 
and non-saccharine sorghums are all excellent silage 
materials. The sorghums are less liable to damage by 
insects than corn, and they remain green far into the 
fall, so that the work of filling the silo may be carried 
on long after the corn is ripe and the stalks all dried 
up. The yield per acre of green sorghum will often 
reach 20 tons, or one-half as much again as a good crop 
of corn. These considerations lead Professor Shelton 
to pronounce sorghum greatly superior to corn as silage 



32 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

materials, in Kansas, and generally throughout the 
Central Western States. 

In Southern States, pea vines, soja bean, teosinte, 
and chicken corn are occasionally siloed. 

Cow peas are to the South what alfalfa is to the 
West, and Mdien properly handled, both crops make 
excellent and most valuable silage. The cow peas are 
sown early in the season, either broadcast, about IJ 
bushels to the acre and turned under with a one-horse 
turning plow, or drilled in rows about two feet apart. 
They are cut with a mower when one-half or more of 
the peas on the vines are fully ripe, and are immediately 
raked in windrows and hauled to the silo where they 
are run through a feed cutter and cut into inch lengths. 
Instead of placing cow peas only in the silo, alternate 
loads of cow peas and corn may be cut and filled into the 
silo, which will make a very satisfactory mixed silage. 
The cut vines, or vines and corn, are carefully leveled off 
and trampled down in the silo, and about a foot cover 
of green corn, straw or cotton seed hulls placed on top 
of the siloed mass. It is safest to wet the cover thor- 
oughly with about two gallons of water per square foot 
of surface. This will seal the siloed mass thoroughly 
and will prevent the air from working in from the 
surface and spoil a considerable depth of the top silage. 

Cow-pea silage is greatly relished by farm animals 
after they once become accustomed to its peculiar fia vor ; 
farmers who have had considerable practical experience 
in feeding this silage are of the opinion that cow-pea 
silage has no equal as a food for cows and sheep. It is 
also a good hog food, and for all these animals is con- 
sidered greatly superior to pea-vine hay. In feeding 



SILAGE CROPS. 33 

experiments at the Delaware experiment station 6 
pounds of pea-vine silage fully took the place of 1 
pound of wheat bran, and the product of one acre was 
found equivalent to two tons of bran. 

Soja leans (soy beans) are another valuable silage 
crop. According to the U. S. Department of Agricul- 
ture "the soy bean is highly nutritive, gives a heavy 
yield, and is easily cultivated. The vigorous late varie- 
ties are well adapted for silage. The crop is frequently 
siloed with corn (2 parts of the latter to 1 of the form- 
er), and like other legumes it improves the silage by 
tending to counteract the acid reaction of corn silage." 

Professor Eobertson of Canada has recommended the 
Robertson Ensilage Jfixtnre for the silo; it is made 
up of cut Indian corn, sunflower seed heads, and horse 
beans in the proportion of 1 acre corn, -J acre horse- 
beans, and J acre sunflowers. The principle back of this 
practice is to furnish a feed richer in flesh-forming 
substances (protein) than corn, and thus avoid the 
purchase of large quantities of expensive protein foods 
like bran, oil meal, etc. Feeding experiments con- 
ducted with the Robertson Silage Mixture for cows at 
several of our experiment stations have given very sat- 
isfactory results, and have shown that this silage mix- 
ture can be partly substituted for the grain ration of 
milch cows, without causing loss of flesh or lessening 
the production of milk or fat. Fifteen pounds of this 
silage may be considered equivalent to three to four 
pounds of grain feeds. 

In N"orthern Europe, especially in England, and in 
the Scandinavian countries, meadow grass and after- 
math (rowen) are usually siloed; in England, at the 



34 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

present time, largely in stacks; in the sugar-beet dis- 
tricts of Germany and Central Europe, diffusion chips 
and beet tops are preserved in silos in large quantities. 

In districts near sugar beet factories, where sugar- 
heet pulp can be obtained in large quantities and at a 
trifling cost, stock feeders and dairymea have a most 
valuable aid in preserving the pulp in the silo. As the 
pulp is taken from the factory it contains about 90 per 
cent of water. The pulp packs well in the silo, being 
heavy, finely divided and homogeneous, and a more 
shallow silo can therefore be safely used in making pulp 
silage than if^ required in siloing corn, and especially 
clover and other crops of similar character. If pulp is 
siloed with other fodder crops, it is preferably placed 
uppermost, for the reason stated. Beet tops and pulp 
may also be siloed in alternate layers in pits 3-4 feet 
deep^ and covered with boards ajid a layer of dirt. 

Beet-pulp silage is relatively rich in protein and 
low in ash and carbo-hydrates (nutr. ratio 1:5.7). Its 
feeding value is equal to about half that of corn silage. 

Occasional mention has furthermore been made in 
our agricultural literature of the siloing of a large num- 
ber of plants, or products, like vetches, small grains 
(cut green), cabbage leaves, sugar beets, potatoes, potato 
leaves, turnips, brewers' grains, apple pomace, twigs and 
leaves, and hop vines; even fern (brake), thistles, and 
ordinary weeds have been made into silage, and used 
with more or less success as food for farm animals. 

At a recent convention of the Cal. Dairy Association, 
the president, Mr. A. P. Martin, stated that the best 
silage he ever made, besides corn, was made of weeds. 
A piece of wheat which was sowed early, Avas drowned 



SILAGE CROPS. 35 

out, and the field came up with tar weed and sorrel. 
This was made into silage, and when fed to milch cows, 
produced most satisfactory results. 

Alvord says that a silo may be found a handy and 
profitable thing to have on a farm even if silage crops 
are not regularly raised to fill it. There are always 
waste products, green or half-dry, with coarse mate- 
rials like swale hay, that are generally used for com- 
post or bedding, which may be made into palatable 
silage. A mixture, in equal parts, of rag-weed, swamp 
grass or swale hay, old corn stalks or straw, and second- 
crop green clover, nearly three-fourths of which would 
otherwise be almost useless, will make a superior silage, 
surprising to those who have never tried it. 

The following description of the contents filled into a 
New York silo, which was used as a sort of catch-all, 
is given by the same writer: 1, 18 in. deep of green 
oats ; 2, 6 in. of red clover ; 3, 6 in. of Canada field peas ; 
4, 3 in. of brewers' grains; 5, 2 feet of whole corn plants, 
sowed broadcast, and more rag- weed than corn; 6, 5 in. 
of second-crop grass; 7, 12 in. of sorghum; 8, a lot of 
inimature corn cut in short lengths. The silage came 
out pretty acid, but good forage, all eaten up clean. 

A peculiar use of the silo is reported from California, 
viz., for rendering foxtail in alfalfa fields harmless in 
feeding cattle. The foxtail which almost takes the first 
crop of alfalfa in many parts of California, is a nutri- 
tious grass, but on account of its beards, is dangerous 
to feed. By siloing the crop the grass is said 
to be rendered perfectly harmless; the alfalfa-fox- 
tail silage thus obtained is eaten by stock with great 
relish and without any injurious effects. 



CHAPTER II.— SILOS. 

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

Several important points have to be observed in 
building silos. First of all, the silo must he air-tight. 
The process of siloing fodders is largely a series of fer- 
mentation processes. Bacteria (minute plants or 
germs), which are practically omnipresent, pass into 
the silo with the corn or the siloed fodder, and, after 
a short time, perhaps at once, begin to grow and 
multiply in it, favored by the presence of air and an 
abundance of food materials in the fodder. The activ- 
ity of the bacteria is soon discernible through tlie heat- 
ing of the mass and the formation of acid in the fodder. 
The more air at the disposal of the bacteria, the further 
the fermentation processes will progress. If a supply 
of air is admitted to the silo from the outside, the bac- 
teria will have a chance to continue to grow, and more 
fodder will therefore be wasted. If a large amount of 
air be admitted, as is usually the case with the top 
layer of silage, the fermentation processes will be more 
far-reaching than is usually the case in the lower layers 
of the silo. Putrefactive bacteria will then continue the 
work of the acid-bacteria, and the result will be rotten 
silage. If no further supply of air is at hand, except 
what remains in the interstices between the siloed fod- 
der, the bacteria will gradually die out, or only such 

(36) 



SILOS. 37 

forms will survive as are able to grow in the absence 
of the oxygen of the air. 

The biology of silage has received but very little 
attention from our scientists up to the present time, 
and we do not know which forms of bacteria are favor- 
able, and which are unfavorable to the proper run of 
the siloing process, or in how far the making of silage is 
dej)endent on bacterial action, and how far on the nat- 
ural dying-off of the plant tissues {intermolecular res- 
piration), or how many of the various conditions of silo- 
ing affect the final result. We know this, however, that 
no silage fit to be eaten can be made in the presence of 
air. The silo must therefore be air-tight, and the fod- 
der well packed in it, so as to exclude the air as far as 
practicable. 

In the second place, the silo must have smooth, per- 
pendicular ivallSy which will allow the mass to settle 
without forming cavities along the walls. In a deep 
silo the fodder will settle several feet during the first 
few days after filling. Any unevenness in the wall will 
prevent the mass from settling uniformly, and air 
spaces in the mass thus formed will cause the surround- 
ing silage to spoil. 

The walls must furthermore he rigid, so as not to 
spring when the siloed fodder settles, on account of the 
lateral pressure in the silo (see p. 47), air would thereby 
be admitted along the silo w^alls, causing decay and loss 
of silage. 

Other points of importance in silo-building, which 
do not apply to all kinds of silos, will be considered as 
we proceed with the discussion of the various forms of 
silos in existence. We shall now take up the different 
phases of the subject of silo building. 



;J8 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

Size of Silos. — In planning a silo the first point to 
be decided is how large it shall be made. We will sup- 
pose that a farmer has a herd of twenty-five cows, to 
which he wishes to feed silage during the winter season, 
e. g., for 180 days. We note here, at the outset, that 
silage will not be likely to give best results for milch 
cows, or for any other class of farm animals, when it 
furnishes the greater portion of the dry matter of the 
feed ration. As a rule, it will not be well to feed over 
forty pounds of silage daily per head. If this quantity 
be fed daily, on an average for a season of 180 days, 
we have for the twenty-five cows 180,000 pounds, or 
ninety tons. On account of the fermentation processes 
taking place in the silo, there is an unavoidable loss of 
food materials during the siloing period, amounting to 
perhaps 10 per cent; we must therefore put more than 
the quantity given into the silo. If ninety tons of silage 
is wanted, about one hundred tons of fodder corn must 
be placed in the silo. Corn silage will weigh from 
thirty pounds, or less, to toward fifty pounds per cubic 
foot, according to the depth in the silo from which it 
is taken, and the amount of moisture which it contains. 
We may take forty pounds as the average weight of one 
cubic foot of . corn silage. One ton of silage will ac- 
cordingly take up fifty cubic feet; and 100 tons, 5,000 
cubic feet. If a rectangular one-hundred-ton silo is to 
be built, say 12x14 feet, it must then have a height of 
30 feet. If a square silo is wanted, it might be given 
dimensions 12x13x35 feet, or 13x13x30 feet; if a cir- 
cular silo, the following dimensions will be about right : 
Diameter, 16 feet; height of silo, 25 feet, etc. In the 



SILOS. 



39 



same way, a silo holding 200 tons of corn or clover silage 
may be built of the dimensions 16x24x26 feet, 20x20x25 
feet, or, if round, diameter, 25 feet ; height, 32 feet, etc. 
Since the capacity of round silos is not as readily 
computed as in case of rectangular silos, we give below 
a table, which shows at a glance the approximate num- 
ber of tons of silage that a round silo, of a diameter 
from 10 to 26 feet, and 20 to 32 feet deep, will hold. 



TaSle Giving the Approximate Capacity of Cylindrical 
Silos for Well-Matured Corn Silage, in Tons. 



Depth 

OF 


Inside Diameter of Silo, Feet. 


Silo, 
Feet. 


10 


12 


14 


15 


16 


18 


20 

105 
112 

120 
128 
135 
143 
152 
160 
169 
178 
187 
195 
205 


21 


22 


23 


24 

151 

161 
172 
184 
195 
206 
219 
231 
243 
256 
269 
282 
295 


25 


26 


20 


26 
28 
30 
32 
34 
36 
38 
40 
42 
45 
47 
49 
51 


38 
40 
43 
46 
49 
52 
•55 
58 
61 
64 
68 
70 
73 


51 
55 
59 
62 
66 
70 
74 
78 
83 
88 
03 
96 
101 


59 

63 

67 

72 

76 

81 

85 

90 

95 

100 

305 

110 

115 


67 

72 

77 

82 

87 

90 

97 

103 

108 

114 

119 

125 

131 


85 
91 
97 
103 
110 
116 
123 
130 
137 
144 
151 
1?8 
166 


115 
123 
132 
141 
149 
158 
168 
177 
186 
196 
206 
215 
226 


127 
135 
145 
154 
164 
173 
184 
194 
204 
215 
226 
236 
248 


138 
148 
158 
169 
179 
190 
201 
212 
223 
235 
247 
258 
271 


163 
175 
187 
199 
212 
224 
237 
251 
264 
278 
292 
305 
320 


177 


21 


189 


22 

23 

24... 

25 


202 
216 

229 
242 


26 

27 

28- .- 


257 
271 

285 


29..-. 

30 


300 
315 


31 


330 


32 


846 







The following table, which has been reproduced from 
a trade publication, will show at a glance how much 
silage is needed for dairy herds of six to fifty heads, 
the size of silo needed and amount of land to be planted 
to corn in each case. The table is based on the as- 
sumption of an average feeding season of 180 days, and 
of a daily allowance of 40 pounds of silage per head. 



10 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

Size of Silo Neeb-ed— (Harder). 



Number 


Estimat- 
ed Con- 


Size of Silo 


Average 
Acres of 

Corn 
Needed. 


Number 


Estimat- 
ed Con- 


Size of Silo 


Average 
Acres of 

Corn 
Needed 


of 


sumpt'n 


Needed. 


of 


sumpt'n 


Needed. 


Cows. 


of Silage 
Tons. 


Diam. Height. 


Cows. 


of Silage 
Tons. 


Diam. Height 


6 


20 


9 X 20 1 
10 X 16 f 


1 to 2 






13 X 381 

14 X 34 








10 X 221 




30 


108 


15 X 30!- 


8 to 9 


'.) 


30 


11 X 20 \ 

10 X 291 


2 to 3 






16 X 281 

17 X 26J 




13 


45 


11 X 25 1 

12 X 22 f 

13 X 20J 


3 to 4 






15 X 35) 










35 


126 


16 X 31V 

17 X 291 


9 to 10 






11 X 371 
















12 X 32 








16 X 35) 




21 


74 


13 X 29 f 

15 X 24 

16 X 22j 


5 to 6 


40 


144 


17 X 31V 

18 X 29) 


10 to 11 


















' 


12 X 381 

13 X 33 




45 


162 


18 X 321 

19 X 29 j 


11 to 12 


25 


90 


14 X 30 


6 to 7 






17 X 381 

18 X 34 f 








15 X 27 

16 X 25 




50 


180 


12 to 13 



Form of Silos. — The first silos made in this country 
or abroad were rectangular, shallow structures, with a 
door opening at one end. Goff art's silos (see Fig. 1 and 
2) were 5x12 meters wide, and 5 meters high (16.4x 
39.4x16.4 feet). Another French silo, one of the larg- 
est ever built, belonging to Vicomte de Chezelles, was 
2 06x21 J feet, and 15 feet high, holding nearly 1,500 
tons of silage. Silos of a similar type, but of smaller 
dimensions, were built in this country in the early 
stages of silo building. Experience had taught siloists 
that it was necessary to weight the fodder heavily in 
these silos, in order to avoid the spoiling of large 
quantities of silage. In Goffart's silos, boards were thus 
placed on top of the siloed fodder, and the mass was 
weighted at the rate of 100 pounds per square foot. 

It was found, however, after some time, that this 



42 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



heavy weighting could be dispensed with by making 
the silos deep, and gradually the deep silos came more 
and more into use. These silos were first built in this 
country in the latter part of the eighties ; at the present 
time none but silos at least twenty to twenty-four feet 
deep are built^, no matter of what form or material 
they are made, and most silos built are twenty-four to 
thirt}^ feet deep. 




FIG. 3.— PLAN OF GOFFART'S SILOS. 



Since 1890 the cylindrical form of silos has become 
more and more general. These silos have the advantage 
over all other kinds in point of cost and convenience^ 



SILOS. 43 

as well as quality of the silage obtained. We shall, 
later on, have an occasion to refer to the relative value 
of the various forms of silos, and shall here only men- 
tion two points in favor of the round silos. 

One of the essentials in silo ])uilding is that there 
shall be a minimum of surface and wall exposure of the 
silage, as both the cost and the danger from losses 
through spoiling are thereby reduced. The round silos 
are superior to all other forms in regard to this point, 
as will be readily seen from an example : A rectangular 
silo, 16x32x24 feet, has the same number of square 
feet of wall surface as a square silo, 24x24 feet, and 
of the same depth, or as a circular silo 30 feet in diame- 
ter and of the same depth ; but these silos will hold about 
the following quantities of silage : Rectangular silo, 246 
tons; square silo, 276 tons; circular silo, 338 tons. 
Less lumber will, therefore, be needed to hold a cer- 
tain quantity of silage in case of square silos than in 
case of rectangular ones, and less for cylindrical silos 
than for square ones, the cylindrical form being, then, 
the most economical of the three types. 

Round silos can furthermore be built cheaper than 
square ones, because lighter material may be used in 
their construction. The sills and studding here do no 
work except to support the roof, since the lining acts 
as a hoop to prevent spreading of- the wall. 

Silage of all kinds will usually begin to spoil after a 
few days, if left exposed to the air ; hence the necessity 
of considering the extent of surface exposure of silage 
in the silo while it is being fed out. In a deep silo there 
is less silage exposed in the surface layer in proportion 
to the contents than in shallow silos. Experience has 



44 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

taught us that about two inches of the top layer of the 
silage must be fed out daily during cold weather in 
order to prevent the silage from spoiling; in warm 
weather about three inches must be taken off daily. 
The form of the silo must therefore be planned^ ac- 
cording to the size of the herd, with special reference 
to this point. Professor King estimates that there 
should be a feeding surface in the silo of about five 
square feet per cow in the herd ; a herd of thirty cows 
will then require 150 square feet of feeding surface, or 
the inside diameter of the silo should be 14 feet; for 
a herd of forty cows a silo with a diameter of 16 feet 
w^ill be required; for fifty cows, a diameter of 18 feet; 
for one hundred cows, a diameter of '25^ feet, etc. 

Locating the Silo. — The question, where to build 
the silo, is most important and has to be settled at the 
start. The feeding of the silage is an every-day job 
during the whole winter and spring, and twice a day at 
that. Other things being equal, the nearest available 
place is therefore the best. The silo should be as handy 
to get at from the barn as possi1)le. The condition of 
the ground must be considered. If the ground is dry 
outside the barn, the best plan to follow is to build 
the silo there, in connection with the Ijarn, going four 
to six feet below the surface, and providing for doors 
opening directly into the barn. The bottom of the 
silo should be on or below the level where the cattle 
stand, and, if practicable, the silage should be moved 
out and placed before the cows at a single handling. 
While it is important to have the silo near at hand, it 
should be so located, in case the silage is used for milk 
production, that silage odors do not penetrate the whole 



SILOS. 45 

stable, at milking or at other times. Milk is very sensi- 
tive to odors, and unless care is taken to feed silage 
after milking, and to have pure air^ free from silage 
odor, in the stable at the time of milking, the milk will 
have a decided silage flavor. So far as is known this 
odor is not discernible in either butter or cheese made 
from silage-flavored milk, nor does it seem to affect 
the keeping qualities of the milk in an}' wa}^ 

Bottom of Silo. — The bottom of the silo may be 
clay, or, preferably, a layer of small stones covered with 
cement. In some silos considerable damage has been 
done by rats burrowing their way into the silo from 
below, and destroying a great deal of silage, both di- 
rectly and indirectly, by admitting air into the silo. 
The silo may be built four to six feet down into the 
ground, if this is dry. It is easy to build the silo deep 
by this arrangement, and there will be no need of extra 
length of carrier. By means of a ten-inch plank, pro- 
vided with a number of cleats, the underground portion 
of the silo may easily be emptied, the feeder walking up 
the plank with the basket filled with silage. Stave silos 
are built entirely above ground, and also in case of 
other silos the tendency of late years seems to be toward 
not going so deep down as was generall}' done in 
the early period of silo construction. 

Foundation and Wall of Silo. — The silo should 
rest on a substantial stone foundation, to prevent the 
bottom of the silo from rotting and to guard against 
spreading of the silo wall. The foundation wall should 
be 18 to 24 inches thick. Professor Cook recommends 
making the bottom of the silo one foot below the ground, 
so that the stone wall on which it rests may be sus- 



46 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



tained by the earth on the outside^ as shown in Fig. 3. 
In building rectangular silos sills made by two 2x10 
planks (P) rest on the inside ten inches of the founda- 
tion wall; one of these projects at each corner. The 
studdings (S), which are 2x10 planks, and as long as 




FIG. 3. FOUNDATION OF SILO. 
Bottom of silo one foot below ground. (Cook.) 

the silo is high, or two lengths toe-nailed together, are 
placed 12 to 16 inches apart, large silos requiring the 
smaller distance. 

As there is a considerable lateral pressure in the silo 



SILOS. 47 

before the fodder has settled^ it is ver}^ important to 
make the walls rigid and to place the studdings suffi- 
ciently close together to prevent spreading of the wall. 
Professor King found that the lateral pressure in a silo 
on the average amounts to 10. 9i pounds for ever}^ foot 
in depth of silage; that is, at a depth of 20 feet there 
is a pressure of about 218 pounds per square foot; at 
30 feet, 328 pounds, etc. Mr. James M. Turner states 
that it was found necessar}^ to use 2x12 studding, 22, 
24, or 26 feet in length, for the outside wall, as well as 
for the cross-partitions in his first silo. In addition to 
this, three courses of bridging in each side-wall were 
inserted. In spite of all, the pressure, when the silo was 
full, frequently forced out the sides from two to six 
inches in places, and on some occasions the air thus 
admitted caused large quantities of the silage to rot 
and greatly impaired the value of the silo. 

AAHien the silage has settled there is no lateral pressure 
in the silo; cases are on record where the silo has burned 
down to the ground with the silage remaining prac- 
tically intact as a tall stack. While silos provided with 
partitions must l)e filled simultaneously on both sides 
of the partition to avoid bulging or even breaking of the 
partition, the silage in one compartment can be com- 
pletely removed before that in the other is uncovered, 
without causing the partition to spring. 

To insure ventilation in rectangular wooden silos, 
the sills may be two inches narrower than the studding, 
so as to leave air spaces between the sills and the lin- 
ing; in the same way the plate is made narrower than 
the studding to provide for an escape at the top. The 
same end may be reached by boring a series of holes at 



48 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

the bottom of the outside wall between every two studs, 
leaving an open space of about two inches on the inside, 
at the top of the plate. Wire nettings should be nailed 
over ventilation openings to keep out rats and mice. 

EooF OF THE Silo. — Where the silo is built in the 
bay of a barn, there will be no need of making any sep- 
arate roof, which otherwise generally will be the case. 
The roof may be either l)oard or shingle, and should be 
provided with a cupola, so as to allow free ventilation in 
the silo. In extreme cold weather this should be shut, 
to prevent freezing of the silage. 

Material for Silo Building. — Silos are at the pres- 
ent built almost exclusively of wood, stone, or concrete, 
or partly of one, partly of another of these materials. 
The material used will largely be determined by local 
conditions; where lumber is cheap, and stone high, 
wooden silos will generally be built ; where the opposite 
is true, stone silos will have the advantage in point ^of 
cheapness, while concrete silos are likely to be preferred 
where cobble-stones are at hand in abundance, and lum- 
ber or stone are hard to get at a reasonable cost. So 
far as the quality of the silage made in any of these 
kinds of silos is concerned, there is no difference when 
the silos are properly built. The longevity of stone- 
and concrete silos is usually greater than that of wood- 
en silos, since the latter are more easily attacked by the 
silage juices and are apt to decay in places after a num- 
ber of years, unless special precautions are taken to 
preserve them. A well-built and well-cared-for wooden 
silo should, however, last almost indefinitely. 

Painting Silos. — It is not strictly necessary to paint 
the silo on the outside, any more than is the case with 



50 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

barns or other farm buildings, but painting preserves the 
woodwork from the action of wind and rain, and greatly 
improves the appearance of a silo as well as of other 
structures. If a farmer thinks much of his silo or of 
his iarm, he will therefore be likely to paint the silo. 
Two good coats of pure linseed oil and white lead, with 
the same color as is used for the other farm buildings, 
should be put on. This will add greatly to the appear- 
ance of the silo, and make it a very attractive structure. 
We shall now consider somewhat in detail the various 
types of silos^ and shall give directions for their build- 
ms in each case. More round wooden silos have been 
built than other kinds of silos during late years, and 
such silos, built either of uprights lined inside and out- 
side with several layers of half-inch boards, or built of 
one thickness of staves, will doubtless be the main silo 
type in the future. We shall therefore first of all de- 
scribe round wooden silos and stave silos, and shall then 
briefly consider other silo types. 

DESCRIPTION OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF SILOS- 
I. Round Wooden Silos. 

Round wooden silos (see fig. 4) were first described in 
1892 by Professor King, of Wisconsin Experiment Sta- 
tion, who strongly urged the advantage of these silos 
over other silo types. In the tenth annual report of 
the Wisconsin station, complete directions will be found 
for the construction of these silos, and illustrations are 
given elucidating the manner of procedure. The plans 
and specifications given in the following pages are 
largely based on the directions for building round silos 



SILOS. 51 

published in the report referred to^ but such modifica- 
tions and additions have been included as have been 
considered advisable in the light of the practical ex- 
perience in silo construction gained during late years. 
The plans and specifications were furnished for the 
writer and under his direction by Claude and Starck, 
Architects, Madison, Wisconsin. The specifications 
call for a silo 30 feet deep, inside diameter 26 feet, ca- 
pacity about 300 tons. By changing the figures for the 
height and the diameter, round silos of any desired 
capacity may be readily built according to these speci- 
fications. 

SPECIFICATIONS FOR A 300-TON ROUND 
WOODEN SILO. 

MASONRY. 

Excavation. Mason to excavate for all trenches and 

the entire inside of the building as far as bottom of 

gravel, as indicated on the section. Bottoms of all 

trenches shall be level. Excavated material shall be 

. disposed of as directed by the owner. 

Footings. Footings shall be good sound sand- or lime 
stone, extending through the wall in one piece, or brick ; 
in either case the footing shall be bedded and laid up in 
cement, one (1) part cement, to three (3) of sand. 

Wall above footing. Wall above footing shall be laid 
up in lime mortar richly gauged with cement. All 
brick shall be thoroughly bonded every fourth course. 

Brick, lime, sand and cement. All brick shall be 
good sound hard-burned brick. All lime and cement 
shall be fresh and undamaged; cement shall be any 
standard brand of hydraulic cement, subject to the ap- 



52 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



proval of the superintendent. All sand shall be clean, 
coarse and sharp. 



■'ll'Qiffar vtffruATom 




^>iKIOW ^/0/ffO 



/A '^ &Oa»os 



—/J 0' //13lOe OADiL/3 — 




. OarianjiF. tiATt 



% ? 
I 



'0 
J 

-Jo 



I "0 




\Or/ck OK Snhc Kamg 



/iALT D-ZIVAT/Or^ 



HaU ^HCT/O/y 



FIG. 5. ELEVATION AND SECTION OF ROUND WOODEN SILO 
SCALE INCH 13 FEET. 

Asphalting. This contractor shall cover the top of 
wall and bed sill (furnished by other parties) in at 
least J inch thick of hot coal-tar asphaltum, 



SILOS. 



53 



Concreting. After the roof is on, the mason shall 
cover the floor with 8 inches of good gravel or coarse 
sand well tamped down, and on this he shall lay three 
inches of concrete composed of 1 part of cement to 9 




FIG 6. FOUNDATION PLAN OF ROUND WOODEN SILO. 

parts of good clean sand and gravel, thoroughly 
mixed and tamped in place with a heavy tamp. On 
this base, and before it has time to set, he shall spread 
1 inch of Portland cement and sand, one part of 



54 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



cement to one of sanely well mixed, and troweled off 
to a perfectly smooth surface. The concrete shall be 
dished 2 inches to the center and brought up against 
the sill as shown on the sectional drawings. Especial 
care must be taken with the asphaltum and concreting 



Xn'^'LoOKOin 



/0VTA7* CONVflUtO 



2 Jji 6 " Cur TO mr\\Cu/}vc 



/m 'fiwi : 



PAQTPim or JX)orr7?ANjm 



'iA4-' 



//vj^vcrL 



^: 



*^^ 



XlK^'Sroin /ino Pij*. 



^ 



m 



^fiCD^oM C3ez.3et.7ioii) 

FIG. 7. Framing plan of round wooden silo. 



to make a perfectly air-tight connection between the 
foundation and the superstructure. 

Finally. After the building is completed, but be- 



SILOS. 55 

fore acceptance, the mason shall repoint and rejDair all 
imperfections or injured work, whether caused by him- 
self or other parties, and leave the entire job complete" 
and to the satisfaction of the superintendent. 

SHEET METAL WORK. 

This contractor shall furnish and set one 12-inch 
diameter Globe ventilator, and he shall properly flash 
around ventilator, and at least 8 inches over the shin- 
gles, with stamped I. C. roofing tin. 

CARPENTERING. 

This contractor shall furnish all carpenter material 
and perform all labor necessary to leave the entire 
building complete and ready for use to the satisfaction 
of the superintendent. 

Framing. Plates shall be cut from 2-inch by 6-inch 
stuff, 2 feet long, cut to fit together to an outside radius 
of 13 feet 7 J inches; these shall be bedded in asphalt, 
furnished by the mason. On the plates he shall then set 
sound hemlock or pine studs of 2x6 inches, 30 feet long, 
not over 12 inch-centers. .Top plate shall be made in the 
same manner as bottom plate, and studs and plates shall 
be thoroughly spiked together. The rafters shall be 
put up as indicated on roof-framing plan, and thor- 
oughly spiked to plate and octagon form at apex of roof ; 
lookouts shall be well nailed to rafters. 

Lining and sheathing. The lining shall be made of 
two thicknesses of sound, clear fencing split in two, 
i. e., J inch thick. [Some authorities recommend three 







I'/i. DiA Hole, covcan 

\HITH Wilis f^CiH 
QE.TM'E-E.fi EAOfJimo 







2.LAY£aS TAB PAfiEJt 




Zin/ATion or r£^D Dooq 
21x6" 



CoA/cfU:-) 



&R/tj( Of? Sreyfc 



— -U- -) 



\ 



ORAVei. 



FIG. 8. SECTION THROUGH WALL OF ROUND WOODEN SILO. 



SiLOS. 67 

thicknesses of J inch fencing.] All lining and sheath- 
ing shall be sized on one side to an exact width; the 
layers of lining shall be made to break joint, and be- 
tween the layers the carpenter shall fnrnish and lay 
one (1) thickness of good quality of tar paper. [Two 
layers, if three thicknesses of boards are used.] The 
first layer shall be laid with 8 d. nails and the last layer 
with 10 d. nails. Outside sheathing shall be of same 
material and laid in the same manner as inside. All 
tar paper used between lining boards of silo shall be 
2-ply Giant P. & B. paper, or its equal, on approval of 
the superintendent. 

Siding. The siding shall be perfectly clear pine, 
basswood or Washington cedar narrow siding well nailed 
to each stud. 

Roof sheathing. The sheathing for the roof shall be 
of No. 1 fencing lapped around the rafters from eaves 
to top in spiral form. All well nailed to rafters with 
10 d. nails. The sheathing shall be tapered in such a 
manner as to work out evenly to conical roof, and where 
ends of boards abut, they shall be dressed off with a 
jack plane. 

Cornice. Cornice facia shall be ^ inch 3d clear pine. 
Mouldings shall be 2d clear pine. Soffit shall be ^ inch 
thick second clear pine cut to a radius of the outside 
of the building and cornice, all securely nailed to look- 
outs. 

Doors. Intake door shall be made of two thicknesses 
of No. 1 fence flooring laid diagonally and well nailed 
together; it shall be hung with two strong 3x3-inch 
japanned iron butts, and fastened with a strong 
jaj^anned iron combination latch, handle and hasp; 



5g 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



provide with 2-inch oak sill. Feed doors shall be made 
as indicated on details, with 2-inch double beveled 
edges made to fit snugly into 2-inch double beveled 
jamb, at the middle of the break between bevels. Jambs 



S"3aizw3\ 




ll-QL^Aa 



5" ^KDiJX\- 
^ 7J//C-K AZT^S corrort m 



■X.lHIOinE.SS COTTON rLM/NZL 
Joint 




Papzp BCTwrcn 



Aote: ' 3mI 3£CTI0N Ton 
iQita UNL.. 



XaC^WD 



FIG. 9. SECTION THROUGH TEED DOOR OF ROUND WOODEN SILO. 

shall be covered with 4-ply cotton flannel, or a heavy 
strip of rubber, in such a way as to make the door per- 
fectly air-tight when closed. These doors shall be 
opened from the inside, and held in position by six 
-|-inch diameter, 6-inch long wood screws. Door cas- 



SILOS. 59 

ings shall be Jx3-inch second clear pine. Fit around 
jambs with tar paper and have perfectly air-tight. 

Ventilation. Between each stud near the bottom bore 
1^-inch diameter holes through siding and sheathing 
and cover with heav}^ gal. iron screen ^-inch mesh. 
Cover studs on inside from top plate 4 inches down 
with same kind of wire screen tightly tacked to plate 
and studs. 

Finally. All work shall be done in first-class work- 
manlike manner to the entire satisfaction of the super- 
intendent. 

PAINTING. 

The entire outside surface of the woodwork except 
shingles shall be painted two good coats of pure linseed 
oil with white lead, color selected by the superintend- 
ent. The entire inside surface walls of the silo shall be 
painted with asbestos paint or hot coal-tar, some of the 
oil in the tar having been previously burned off, care 
being taken to fill in all cracks and joints and jambs of 
feed doors. Feed doors shall be painted inside and on 
the edges in the same manner. 

BIDS. 

The owner reserves the right to reject any or all bids. 

Chute for round silos. — Instead of providing a 
number of feed doors for taking out the silage at differ- 
ent heights of the silo, a door may be placed at a bottom 
extending up from it to the top, where there is another 
door for one to enter in getting out the silage. The 
following description of the chute and the accompanying 
illustration (fig. 10) is taken from Bull. No. 14, Wash- 
ington Plxp. Station: 



60 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



Two pieces of 2x8 or 2x10 are nailed to the inside of 
the silo wall l)efore the second layer of the wall is put 
on, one on either side of the door, and extending from 
top to bottom of the silo. Boards are nailed to these 
so as to project about two inches beyond their edges 
(see fig. 10). As the silo is filled, the board forming the 
wall of the chute next to the silage are laid in in two 
layers, with a layer of tarred paper between them. As 
the silage is removed in feeding these boards are taken 
out. The paper between them should be in rather small 
pieces, in order that it may not be in the way in taking 
out the silage. 




FIG. to. SILAGE CHUTE EOR ROUND SILOS. (SPILLMAN.) 

Descriptions are given in the following of round 
wooden silos built at the agricultural experiment sta- 
tions in New Jersey, Wisconsin, Missouri and South 
Dakota, according to a similar plan as that explained 
in detail in the preceding. The descriptions will be 
useful to farmers living in the states mentioned or in the 
regions represented by these, and will also serve to shoM^ 
how local conditions will determine details of construc- 
tion, as well as the cost and kinds of materials used 
in the building of the silos. The publications of the 
respective experiment stations have been followed 
closely in describing the different silos, 



SILOS. 



61 





FIG. 11. 



TWO METHODS OF ROOFING ROUND WOODEN SILOS AND THE 
MANNER OF CONNECTING THEM WITH A BARN. 



A, Shows where air is admitted between the studding to venti- 
late behind the lining. B, Feeding chute; C, Filling window. 
The cupola is essential to perfect ventilation (King). 



SILOS. 



63 







FIG. 13. ROUXD WOODEN SILO. 

Dormer window kept open for ventilation when silo is in use. 

THE NEW JERSEY EXPERIMENT STATION SILO. 

(See Fig. 14.) 

The silo has a capacity of 150 torxs; it is 21 feet inside 
diameter, and 24 feet deep, with a brick foundation 1 foot 
wide and carried 2 feet below the surface of the ground; 
the bottom is cemented and is IVs feet below the sills. 
The sills are made from 2x6 studding, cut on the slant 
of a radius of the silo circle, bedded in mortar and toe- 
nailed together; the plates are made in the same way and 
spiked to studs which are 2x4 inches, and 1 foot apart. 
The lining consists of two thicknesses of half-inch spruce 
boards with tarred paper between. The siding consists 
of one layer of boards as above, covered with cedar 
shingles; holes bored between each stud and covered with 
wire netting permit a circulation of air between the sid- 
ing and lining, which aids in the preservation of the lin- 
ing. The structure is roofed, as shown, with dormer win- 
dows for filling and with ventilating cap and is joined to 
the barn with a passage and floor 6x8 feet, also roofed. 
Four doors, 21/^ feet square are cut in the siding for 



SILOS. 65 

emptying the silo, the silage dropping through a chute, 2 
feet square, upon the floor of the passageway which is 
connected by a door with the feeding floor of the barn. 

COST OF MATERIALS REQUIRED IN BUILDING SILO. 
(Not including labor.) 

Foundation— 2,500 brick, 5.50 per m $ 13.75 

Cement — 7% barrels ordinary, $1.35 per bbl 10.46 

Cement— 11/4 barrels, Portland, $4.00 per bbl 5.00 

Sand— 4 loads, $1.50 per load 6.00 

Studding— 2x4x24 (704 feet), $20.00 per m 14.08 

Plates and sills— 2x6x12 (260 feet), $20.00 per m 5.20 

Studding for passage— 2x4x16 (85 feet), $20.00 per m. 1.70 

Siding and lining— 5,200 feet, $17.50 per m 91.00 

Shingles— 14,000, $4.00 per m 56.00 

Nails -2 kegs, $3.25 per keg 6.50 

Boards for roof— 325 feet, $17.50 per m 5.69 

Paper— 6 rolls, $1.50 per roll 9.00 

Total $224.38 

The cost of labor is not included as this item is likely 
to be more variable than the materials, besides a large 
amount of the work can be performed by the farmer him- 
self, or his regular laborers. The items are given solely 
as a guide as to the probable maximum outlay for ma- 
terials which it is necessary to buy for a structure of this 
form and capacity. (See Fig. 14.) 

THE 90-TON ROUND SILO, WISCONSIN EXPERI- 
MENT STATION. 

The silo has an outside diameter of 16 feet and is 27 
feet deep. It has a stone foundation, 3 feet high and 18 
inches thick, laid in Louisville cement and plastered on 
the inside with two coats. The sill is a single 2x4 cut 
beveled on the radius of the circle in 2-foot lengths, and 
toe-nailed together after being laid upon the wall, then 
bedded in mortar. For studding 2x4's were used, 1 foot 
apart, 12 and 14 foot pieces being lapped 2 feet and spiked 
together before setting in place. For lining and outside 



GG 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



sheeting, 6-inch fencing was split in two and nailed on 
horizontally, taking care to break joints. Three layers 
were put on for lining, with two layers of tar paper be- 
tween. For siding ordinary half-inch beveled siding was 
used, rabbeted as shown in Fig. 16. 




FIG. 15. ROUND WOODEN SILO AT WISCONSIN EXPERIMENT STATION. 

Diameter, 16 feet; height, 27 feet; capacity, about 90 tons. 

The plate was made like the sill, out of 2x4's cut in 
2-foot sections and spiked down to the tops of the stud- 
ding after the sheeting and siding had been carried up 
and the last staging built. 

The roof was built without rafters by having a circle 
made by sawing pieces of 2x8's to the curve of a circle 
five feet in diameter and spiking two layers of these to- 
gether, breaking joints so as to form a circle. This was 
supported in place so as to give about one-quarter pitch 
to the roof, and the roof boards were then nailed one end 
to this circle and the other to the plate. The roof boards 
consisted of fencing cut the desired length and sawed diag- 



SILOS. 



67 



onally from within one inch of one corner to within one 
inch of the opposite corner. The roof was shingled and 
a galvanized-iron ventilator was nailed to the roof after the 
shingling was done. 

The filling window was 31/2 feet high and 3 feet wide. 
Three feeding doors 4 feet high, 2 feet wide, were cut 
out after the siding and lining was put on. The doors 
are made of three layers of % inch matched flooring, 4 
inches wide, nailed to two cleats sawed so as to have the 







"'^m^m'P 



FIG. 16. CONSTRUCTION OF ROUND WOODEN SILO. (WHEELER.) 

curvature of the silo wall, and of a similar thickness as 
that of the silo wall. The two sides of the door are bev- 
eled, and the inner corner of the swinging edge of the 
door is rounded a little to permit it to open and close 
readily.' The doors are fastened by a pair of carriage 
bolts put through the studding opposite the ends of the 
cleats in the door and strips of band iron, 2 inches wide 
and 1/4 inch thick bolted to the door along each cleat and 
provided with a long hole which shuts over the bolt in 



68 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

the studding when the door is closed. The door is held 
shut by handle nuts like those used on the rods for the 
end boards of lumber wagons. 

For ventilation one 2-inch hole is bored through the 
siding and sheeting at the bottom between each pair of 
studs, and the hole covered with wire netting on the 
inside before the lining is put on (see Fig. 16). At the 
top the lining does not quite reach the plate and wire 
netting is nailed over the opening to prevent the silage 
from falling in. Provision is made for closing the lower 
openings in freezing weather. (See Fig. 15.) 

The bill of materials for the silo was as follows: 57 
2x4's 12 feet long; 57 2x4's 14 feet long; 2,500 feet fenc- 
ing, 16 feet sized and split for sheeting and lining; 320 
feet fencing, 16 feet cut 8 feet, and sawed diagonally for 
roof boards; 720 feet siding rabbeted; 120 feet flooring; 3 M. 
cedar shingles; 1 circle frame for roof; 500 pounds tar 
paper; 7 barrels Louisville cement; 2^^ cord of stone; 
1 keg of lOd. wire nails; 3 kegs of 8d. nails; 1 keg of 20d. 
nails; 50 pounds 6d. wire nails; 25 pounds 4d. wire nails; 
3 pairs 6 inch T hinges; 1 pair 4 inch T hinges; 1 hook 
and staple; 12^/^x7 inch carriage bolts; 6%x7 carriage bolts; 
galvanized iron cupola; 25 pounds band iron for door fast- 
eners. 

Total cost of materials $175 . 99 

Mason labor 29 . 14 

Carpenter labor 42 . 89 

Total $248.02 

THE SILO IN THE DAIRY BARN, WISCONSIN 
EXPERIMENT STATION. (See Fig. 17.) 

The silo is circular in form, 18 feet inside diameter 
and 33 feet deep. It is a frame structure lined inside and 
outside with brick. On 2x6 inch uprights, two wrappings 
of % inch stuff, 6 inches wide, are put, breaking joints, 
with no paper between. Brick is laid tight against this 
lining, and on the brick surface is a heavy coating of Port- 



70 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



land cement (1 part cement, 1 part sand). On the out- 
side brick is laid up against the lining with a small open 
space between (about i/^ inch). The silo is filled from 
the third floor of the barn, the loads of corn being hauled 
directly on to this floor over the trestle shown to the right 
in fig. 17, and there run through the feed cutter. When 
the silage is taken out for feeding, it falls through a 



-, PEED 















p 


A 


S S '=* 


e 


E 














SUTTER P 










^ 





w 




s 


T 


A 


L 


L 


S' 






L_L_l 












— 




_ 


, 










_J 






1 , 




M A tsj G E R 
M A IM O E R 


— 1 








' 






... 






I 










C 


VJ 


s 


^^ 


L 


L S 








1 ' ■ U U T 1 t H 1 



KOOM 



OFFICE 



l»J 



SILO 



PASSAGE 



FIG. 18. PLAN OF EASTERN HALE OF FIRST FLOOR OF DAIRY BARN, 
WISCONSIN EXPERIMENT STATION. 

box chute to the main floor where it is received into a 
truck (flg. 61) in which it is conveyed to the mangers of 
the animals. 



THE MISSOURI EXPERIMENT STATION SILO. 

(115 TONS.) 

The sill is a single thickness of 2x4 stuff, three or 
four feet long, cut on the arc of the siio circle, bedded 
in mortar, and the sections toe-nailed together. The plate 
is made in the same manner and nailed to the top of the 
studding. The studding is 2x4 stuff, placed one foot apart, 
and toe-nailed to the sill. In silos 30 feet deep, two 16- 
foot studs are lapped together. The lining is made of good 
fencing boards split in two, making them one-half inch 
thick by six inches wide, tarred and laid with the tarred 



SILOS. 



71 



faces together, with tarred paper between the same, taking 
care to break all joints in both directions. A line of doors 
from bottom to top one above the other, 3 feet wide and 
4 feet high, at intervals of about 4 feet, are provided, and 
closed with pieces of boards made to fit. The studding on 
each side of the doors are doubled. Sheet steel was used 




FIG. 19. ROUND SILO AT MISSOURI EXPERIMENT STATION. 
(FROM PHOTOGRAPH.) 



for siding, painted inside and out. This was cheaper in 
cost of material and in labor of putting it on than the 
drop siding, and really cheaper than weather boarding or 
clapboards. A conical roof with dormer window completed 
the construction of the silo. (See Fig. 19.) 



72 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

Cost of round silo holding 115 tons (16 feet diameter, 
30 feet deep): 

Foundation— 10 perches at $1.50 $ 15.00 

Sills and plates— 10 pieces 2x4, 12 feet long, 80 feet 

at $15 1-20 

Studdings— 100 pieces 2x4, 16 feet long, 1,066 feet 

at $15 16.00 

Rafters— 25 pieces 2x4, 10 feet long, 166 feet at $15. . 2.49 

Roof boards— 300 feet at $15 4.50 

Lining— 1,600 feet clear fencing at $17 27.20 

Shingles— 3 m. at $2.25 6.75 

Siding— 18 squares of 27-pound steel 28.00 

Tar paper— 3 rolls at $4 12.00 

Coal tar — 1 barrel , 4.50 

Nails — 155 pounds 6.45 

Cementing floor 4.00 

Paint 6.00 

Labor 40.00 

Total cost $174.09 

It is not necessary to employ skilled labor and the cash 
outlay may therefore be reduced by the amount charged 
to labor in the foregoing estimates. 

THE SOUTH DAKOTA EXPERIMENT STATION SILO. 

(125 TONS.) 

The silo (see fig. 20) was built in 1896; it is 16 feet 
in diameter and 30 feet from sill to plate; its capacity is 
125 tons of green fodder, as it comes from the field. It is 
built at the west end of the dairy barn and there is a 
chute, 4x4 feet, between it and the barn. This chute ex- 
tends the entire height of the silo and terminates in a 
ventilator about six feet above the ridge of the dairy barn. 
Into this chute the four feeding doors of the silo open. 
There are also two doors from the dairy barn opening into 
it, one at the bottom from the feeding alley which runs 
between the two rows of mangers, and one from the floor 
above. This chute makes it very convenient feeding the 
silage as it can be thrown from any of the doors into 
the chute and it Vv-ill drop very close to the place where 



SILOS. 



73 



it is needed for feeding. A car and tramway could be put 
in at a small cost, so arranged that the silage would drop 
into the car when it was run into the chute, and when 
it was filled the silage could be distributed by running 
the car along in front of the feeding mangers. This chute 
also acts as a ventilator for the cow stables. In giving 
bill of materials and estimating the cost of the silo this 
chute is not included. 




FIG. 30. ROUND WOODEN SILO, SOUTH DAKOTA AGRICULTURAL 

EXPERIMENT STATION. 

The foundation is of native boulders laid in Yankton 
cement. The wall is ZV2 feet high and 2 feet thick at the 
base, narrowing to about 8 inches at the top. The mortar 
used for laying the wall was made by mixing one-third 
Yankton cement and two-thirds sand, while that used for 



74 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

the plastering after the stone work was finished was mixed 
two-fifths cement and three-fifths sand. The bottom was 
made by putting in a layer, 8 inches deep, of broken 
stone, and pouring over it cement mixed very thin so 
that it would fill all the open spaces between the stones. 
After this had hardened the whole inside surface was plas- 
tered over with mortar so as to entirely cover all the stone 
work. 

The sill was made by cutting 2x4 pine into sections 
2 feet and 1 inch long at the outer points, and cut at 7 
degrees and 30 minutes angle. Forty-eight of these were 
required to make a double sill. They were spiked together 
with 20d. nails, so as to break joints. 

The studdings are 2x4, 16 feet long, lapped 2 feet and 
nailed together, making a total length of 30 feet between 
sill and upper rim. They are set 12i/^ inches apart from 
center to center on their outer faces, and each one comes 
directly over a joint in either the upper or lower section 
of the sill. The lower ends of the studding were satu- 
rated with hot tar and toe-nailed to the sill. After setting 
the studding the sheathing was started on both the out- 
side and inside. Cement mortar was run in on top of the 
sill between the studding to the depth of about 2 inches. 
This unites with the cement of the wall and makes an 
air tight connection between foundation and superstruc- 
ture. 

The upper rim was made exactly the same as the sill 
and nailed on top of the 30-foot studding. 

The inside lining is made of two thicknesses of i/^-inch 
No. 1 fencing, 6 inches wide, neither planed nor matched. 
The first thickness was put on, then painted with a coat 
of hot coal tar, a layer of tarred felt was then applied, 
then another thickness of i/^-inch fencing made to break 
joints with the first, and this second or inside lining was 
given two coats of hot coal tar, the last coat having 
been boiled until it made a hard, glossy surface. 

The outside sheathing and siding are of one thickness 
of i/^-inch fencing and one thickness of rabbeted lap sid- 



SILOS. "^5 

ing with tarred felt between. It was found necessary not 
only to have the siding rabbeted, but it also had to be 
cut into pieces not exceeding 8 feet in length in order to 
get it to lie flat against the sheathing without "crimping." 

The Roof. — Plates 8 feet long, made of two 2x4's nailed 
together, were spiked on top of two opposite sections of 
the upper rim. Upon these were erected five pairs of raf- 
ters carrying a 2x6 ridge pole 19 feet long. To the lower 
ends of these rafters two 2x4's were spiked to take the place 
of the fascia of the cornice. Three shorter pairs of rafters 
were then attached to the ridge pole at each side of the 
first ones and held in place by stays, and other 2x4's were 
spiked to the end of these. The roof sheathing was then 
put on and the short studding were fitted in between the 
upper rim and the roof boards, or the rafters, as the case 
might be. The stays which had supported the rafters were 
removed. The gables were then sided up with %-inch 
ceiling and the roof was shingled. 

Doors. There are four feeding doors, each 2 feet by 3 
feet 10 inches, made of matched flooring on a framework 
cut on the same radius as the silo, and with a hollow 
space of 4 inches on the inside. These doors are hung on 
heavy T hinges, and are each provided with two i/^x2 inch 
hasps extending the full width of the door, and projecting 
beyond the front edge about 2 inches. When these doors 
are closed for filling the hasps are fastened with a %-inch 
carriage bolt through the silo wall and the projecting end 
of the hasp. In this way the doors can be so tightly closed 
as to make the wall nearly air-tight. 

A door, 3x4 feet, for filling, made of 1-inch fiooring, 
was put in the gable. 

Ventilation of Silos.— Three %-inch holes were bored 
through the outer walls of the silo between each pair of 
studding, and the inside sheathing was not continued quite 
to the upper rim, but a space of about two inches was 
left between the top of the sheathing and the bottom of the 
upper rim. This arrangement allows a free passage of air 
between the outer and inner walls of the silo during warm 



7C, MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

weather when decay is liable to occur. In cold weather 
these holes through the outer wall are covered by tacking a 
piece of thin siding over them. 

The silo was finished by giving it two coats of paint. 

Below is given a bill of material and labor. It is be- 
lieved that the price of some of the material is too high, 
and that anyone having the cash to pay for it could make 
a considerable saving on this bill. The conditions under 
which this material was purchased were net so favorable 
to economy as they might have been. The prices given 
are, however, those paid; and all material, except the stone, 
which we had in abundance close at hand, and all the 
labor is included. It is also believed that the foundation 
of this silo is more expensive than would be necessary in 
most locations. The silo is located on the lower side of 
the barn between two stable doors. In the spring the drain- 
age from the higher ground, and the tramping of the cat- 
tle often make the ground around the silo quite soft and 
muddy. On this account it was considered advisable to 
make the foundation quite substantial. For a silo of the 
same size located on a high, well drained site, a much 
cheaper foundation would do equally as well. 

BILL OF MATERIAL. 

100 2x4 16-foot long studding. . . .1067 feet 
41 2x4 12-foot long rafters, sills, 

rim, etc 493 " 

18 2x4 10-foot rafters and plate.. 120 " 
1 2x6 20-foot long ridge plate 20 " 

1700 feet @ $18.00 $ 30.60 

1900 feet No. 1 lap-siding, rabbeted @ $27.50 52.20 

4500 feet y2-inch fencing, sheathing @ $15.00 67.50 

120 feet flooring, for doors @ $25.00 3.00 

375 feet boards, for roof @ $18.00 6.75 

200 feet %-inch ceiling, for gable @ $30.00 6.00 

1 barrel coal tar 7.50 

621 pounds tarred felt @ $2.00 12.40 

3 m. shingles @ $3.00 9 . 00 

6 barrels cement @ $5.00 30 . 00 

400 pounds nails @ 3 cents 12 . 00 



SILOS. 77 

Hinges and hook 1 . 50 

Heavy hasps and bolts for doors 6.20 

Labor and Paint— $ 244.65 

Pamt and painting $10.00 

Carpenter work @ $3.00 per day 60.00 

Mason work @ $3.50 per day 10.50 

Common laborers @ $1.00 per day 8.00 88.15 

Total $ 332 . 80 

. _ _ . _ ''v. 

V. 




FIG. 21. CYLINDRICAL. BARN, SHOWING MAIN ENTRANCE TO FIRST 
AND SECOND STORIES. 

Round Silo, 23 feet, diam., 34 feet high, in center. From 
a photograph. (King.) 

EouND WooDEX Silos may- conveniently be bnilt in- 
side of large, round barns in a similar manner, as 
described in the Seventh Report of the Wisconsin Ex- 
periment Station, in case of a three-hundred ton silo at 
Whitewater, Wis. The dimensions of the silo, which is 
in the center of the barn, are 23 feet inside diameter. 



78 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

by 34 feet high. It was built from 2x6 studdings, sided 
up by two layers of fence boards, sawed in two. For 
explanations as to the details of the construction of 
barns of this kind the reader is referred to the report 
mentioned. Other methods of connecting round wooden 
silos with barns will be shown at the close of the discus- 
sion of stave silos. 

II. Stave Silos. 

The stave silo is the simplest type of the various 
separate silo buildings, and partly for this reason, partly 




^j* 



FIG. 23. STAVE SILO. 

12 ft. diameter, 24 ft. high; capacity, 50 tons. (Elias.) 

also on account of its cheapness of construction, more 
silos of this kind have been built during the past few 
years than of any other silo type. Stave silos are, gen- 
erally speaking, similar to large railroad- or fermenta- 



SILOS. 79 

tion tanks, and to make satisfactory silos should be built 
at all events equally well as a No. 1 water tank. The 
first stave silos were built in this country in the be- 
ginning of the nineties; they soon found some enthus- 
iastic friends, while most people, and certainly nearly all 
writers and lecturers on silo construction, were inclined 
to be skeptical as to their practicability. It was objected 
that the staves would expand so as to burst the hoops 
when the silo was filled with green fodder; that they 
would shrink, after having been left empty during the 
summer months, so that the silo would fall to pieces, or 
at least so that it could not again be made air-tight; 
and finally, that the silage would freeze in such silos, 
and its feeding value thereby greatly lowered. In ad- 
dition to this, it was claimed that a substantial stave 
silo would cost as much as a first-class ordinary all-wood 
silo of the same capacity, and that this would not have 
the objectionable features of the former. 

In spite of these objections the stave silo has, how- 
ever, gained more and more ground until of late years 
it has been adopted quite generally in preference to 
other kinds of silos, particularly in the Eastern and 
Central Eastern states. This being a fact, it follows 
that the objections previously made to the stave silos are 
not valid, that the staves do not swell so as to burst the 
hoops, or shrink so as to cause the silo to fall to pieces 
or become leaky. As regards the danger from freezing 
of the silage, the criticisms of the stave silo are in 
order, as the silage will freeze in cold weather in any of 
the Northern states or Canada, if the silo is built out- 
doors, but according to the unanimous testimony of 
farmers who have had experience with frozen silage, this 



80 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

is more an inconvenience than a loss. The freezing 
does not injure the feeding value of the silage, or its 
palatability. When the silage is thawed out, it is as 
good as ever, and eaten by cattle with a relish. 

The main reasons why stave silos have been generally 
preferred by farmers of late years and are likely to be- 
come the silo type of the future are, I take it, first, 
they can be put up easily, quickly, and cheaply, and the 
expense for a small silo of this kind is comparatively 
small, so that many a farmer has built a stave silo who 
could not afford to build a high-priced silo, and others 
have preferred to build two small silos for one 
large one, or a small one in addition to an 
old, larger one they may already have. Sec- 
ondly, manufacturing firms have made a spe- 
cialty of stave-silo construction and pushed the sale of 
such silos through advertisements and neat circulars. 
Having made a special business of the building of stave 
silos, and having had several years' experience as to the 
requirements and precautions to be observed in building 
such silos, these firms furnish silos complete with all 
necessary fixtures, that are greatly superior to any which 
a farmer would be apt to build according to more or 
less incomplete directions. 

It follows as a corollary that the stave silos sent out 
by manufacturing firms will generally be more expen- 
sive than such as a farmer can build himself, because 
they are built better. The writer believes that it does 
not pay to build a poor silo except to bridge over an 
emergency. Poor, cheap silos are a constant source of 
annoyance, expense and trouble, whether built square, 
rectangular, or round. The cheap silos described in 



SILOS. 81 

other places of this book have not been given for the 
puipose of encouraging tlie building of such silos, but 
rather to show that if a farmer cannot afford to build 
a good silo, he is not necessarily barred from the ad- 
vantage of having silage for his stock, since a temporary 
silo may be built at a very small cash outlay. 

We can therefore consistently, in most cases, recom- 
mend that parties intending to build stave silos patron- 
ize the manufacturers who have made silo construction 
a special business ; their advertisements will be found in 
any of the standard dairy or agricultural papers. These 
firms furnish all necessary silo fittings, with complete 
directions for setting up the silos, and, if desired, also 
skilled help to superintend their. building. Perhaps a 
large majority of the farmers of the country cannot, 
however, patronize manufacturers of stave silos because 
the expense of shipping the lumber and fixtures would 
be prohibitory. For the convenience of such parties 
and others who may prefer to build their own stave 
silos, directions for their construction are given in the 
following. The specifications for a 100-ton stave silo, 
printed below, were furnished at the request of the 
author by Claude & Starck, architects, Madison, Wis- 
consin : 

SPECIFICATIONS FOR A tOO-TON STAVE SILO. 

MASONRY 

Excavate the entire area to be occupied by the silo 
to a depth of six inches; excavate for foundation wall to 
a depth of 16 inches; in this trench build wall 18 inches 
wide and 20 inches high, of field stone laid in rich lime 
mortar. Level off top and plaster inside, outside and on 
top with cement mortar, 1 part cement to 1 part sand. 



S2 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

Fill inside area with four inches of good gravel, thor- 
oughly tamped down; after the woodwork is in place coat 
this with 1 inch of cement mortar, 1 part cement to 1 
part clean sand. Cement shall be smoothly finished, dished 
well to the center and brought up at least 2 inches all 
around inside and outside walls. 

CARPENTRY. 

All staves shall be 26 feet long in two pieces, break- 
ing joints, and made from clear, straight-grained cypress 
2x6 inches, beveled on edges to an outside radius of 8 feet, 
mill-sized to the exact dimensions and dressed on all sides. 
There shall be three doors in the fifth, eighth and tenth 
spaces between hoops, made by cutting out from staves 
28 inches long cut to a 45 degree bevel sloping to the 



FIG. 23, APPEARANCE OF DOOR iN STAVE SILO AFTER BEING SAWED 
OUT, AND SIDE VIEW OF DOOR IN PLACE. (CLINTON.) 

inside. (See fig. 23.) The staves shall then be fastened 
together with two 2x4 inch battens cut on inside to an 
8-foot radius and bolted to each stave with two i/4-inch 
diameter carriage bolts with round head sunk on inside 
and nut on outside. The staves between the doors shall 
be fastened together, top and bottom, with %-inch diam- 
eter hardwood dowel pins, and abutting ends of staves 
shall be squared and toe-nailed together. 

Bottom Plates. — Bottom plates shall be made of 2x4 inch 
pieces about 2 feet long, cut to a curve of 7 feet 10 inches 



SILOS. 



83 



radius outside. They shall be bedded in cement mortar 
and the staves shall then be set on the foundation and 
well spiked to these plates. 

Hoops. — Hoops shall be made from two pieces of %-inch 
diameter round iron fv^ith upset ends, threaded eight inches, 
with nut and washer at each end; as a support for the 
hoops a piece of 4x6-inch shall be substituted for a stave 
on opposite sides and holes bored in it and the ends of 
hoops passed through these holes and tightened against 
the sides of the 4x6-inch. The hoops shall be twelve in num- 




FIG. 24. A CHEAP ROOF OF STAVE SILO. (CLINTON.) 

ber starting at the bottom 6 inches apart and increasing 
in distance 6 inches between each hoop until a space of 
3 feet 6 inches is reached; from this point up this dis- 
tance shall be preserved as near as possible to the top. 

Roof. — Roof shall be made to a half-pitch of 6 inches 
clear siding lapping joint, nailed to 2x4-inch rafters, 2 
feet centers, 1-foot by 4-inch ridge, and 2x4-inch plates. 
These plates to be supported on two 4x4-inch pieces rest- 



84 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

ing on top of hoops (see fig. 24). Three lx4-inch collar 

beams shall be spiked to end and middle rafters to tie side 

of roof together. 

PAINTING. 

The entire outside of the silo, including roof, shall be 
painted two coats of good mineral paint; the entire inside 
surface of staves and doors shall be thoroughly coated with 
hot coal tar. 

Note. — Before filling silo, tar paper should be tacked 
tightly over doors and the entire inside of silo examined 
and all cracks tightly caulked. 

The method of construction specified in the preceding 
may of course be modified in many particulars, accord- 
ing to the conditions present in each case, cost of differ- 
ent kinds of lumber, maximum amount of money to be 
expended on silo, etc. A few points in regard to the 
building of these silos may properly be discussed in this 
place. 

Beveled vs. unheveled staves. The question whether 
staves need to be beveled for use in the building of stave 
silos has been a subject of controversy in the agricul- 
tural press and elsewhere. The New York (Cornell) 
Experiment Station, which has made a systematic study 
of stave silos (the results of which are published in bull. 
Xo. 167 of this station. The Construction of the Stave 
Silo, by L. A. Clinton), as well as farmers who have 
had several years' experience with stave silos made of 
unbeveled staves, are of the opinion that "beveling is 
unnecessary with silos having a diameter of more than 
12 feet, if the staves are not more than six inches wide, 
while silos having a diameter of 12 feet or less should 
have the staves beveled if these are six inches wide; if 
the staves are four inches wide, no beveling is neces-. 



SILOS. 85 

sary. With all stave silos, if the beveling could be guar- 
anteed accurate for the silo to be constructed there is 
no objection to the beveling. But no beveling is prefer- 
able to TOO much beveling."* 

According to the experience of the well-known writer 
and lecturer, John Gould, of Ohio, "unbeveled staves, 
well sized, will pinch together on inside edges so as to 
be in every way as good as a tongued and grooved stave, 
and will dry out and keep better than one where it can 
sap-soak so much in the grooves.'' 

Although practical exjDerience so far seems to con- 
firm the correctness of the position stated, it is a fact 
that railroad water tanks and large fermentation tanks 
are always, so far as known, made of slightly beveled 
staves, and the staves in such tanks need to fit at least 
as tightly as those of stave silos. Another indication 
showing that beveled staves are preferable to unbev- 
eled ones is the fact that all the various manufacturers 
who have made stave silo construction a specialty are 
using beveled staves. They are as interested as their 
customers in reducing the cost of their silos, but have 
still thought it unwise to vary from the plan of large 
water tanks. It is evident from the testimony on hand, 
however, that stave silos built of unbeveled staves have 
given good satisfaction for at least four seasons; and 
it is also evident that the beveling of the staves, if done 
at all, must be done carefully, so that too much is not 
taken olf, which will prevent the making of a tight joint 
at the inner edge of the staves when the silo hoops are 
tightened. 



* Private communication from Prof. Clinton. 



86 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

Wire fencing for hoops. In the place of round or flat 
iron hoops. |-inch diameter, it has been suggested to 
use a band of 52-inch woven wire fencing cut of such 
a length that when each end is wrapped about a 4xi-inch 
oak scantling, and put round the silo, the end pieces 
will come within about 10 inches of each other and 
are tied together with two 1-inch bolts with double 
burrs. The bands are placed sufficiently far apart to 
admit of doors being placed at proper distances. The 
coil of the wire takes up all slack, as the silo shrinks 
when empty, and expands when the staves swell, so that 
the staves are under tension all the time. 

By making the stave silo of plain unbeveled 2x4-inch 
scantling and using wire fencing for hoops, silo con- 
struction has been reduced to tlie lowest cost which it 
is likely to ever reach; a 50-ton silo of this kind (12 
feet diameter, 24 feet high) of hemlock staves put up at 
Cornell Experiment Station cost $34 for materials. 
The materials may be obtained at any lumber yard and 
hardware shop, and a minimum of mechanical skill is 
required for putting up the silo. With the limited ex- 
perience at hand at the present time concerning the 
longevity of silos built in the manner suggested we 
cannot feel certain that they will prove satisfactory 
structures in the long run — there are, in fact, good 
authorities that are skeptical even as to the value of 
such silos for a short period of time, but the evidence 
on record shows, as stated, that they have given good 
satisfaction for four seasons at any rate, first-class 
silage having been made in them during this time, and 
at present there are no signs of their giving out. It 
would -seem therefore tlia;t stave silos built as suggested 



SILOS. 



87 



may l)e safely recommended at least as temporary struc- 
tures and to bridge over to when more expensive and 
carefully built silos can be erected. 

Founciation of stave silos. The method of making 
the foundation of a stave silo recommended by a Xew 
York manufacturer is shown in figures 25 and 26. 




CEMENT COVE 



CONCRETE 



EARTH 

SECTION 

SCALE A IN TO FOOT* 



FIG. 25. FOUNDATION OF STAVE SILO. (HARDER.) 

Setting up the staves. The method of setting up a 
stave silo recommended by the Cornell Experiment 
Station is shown in fig. 27. "Posts of 6xQ material (a), 
of the entire length of the silo, are set up vertically and 
stayed securely in place. The scaffolding may be con- 
structed by setting ujd 2x4 scantling in the positions 
shown in the figure as h. Boards nailed from these 
2x4's to the QxQ posts will form a rigid frame, across 
which the planks for the scaffold platform may be laid. 
Before the scaffolding is all in place, the staves should 



88 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE, 



be stood u]^ within the inclosnre, otlierwise difficulty 
will be experienced in getting them into position. Some 




FIG. 26. BASE OF STAVE SILO. (HARDER.) 

cantion needs to be exercised in working on the scaf- 
folding that the planks do not tip. The first stave set 

\) 




FIG. 27. CROSS-SECTION OF STAVE SILO. THE DOTTED LINES ARE 
TO SHOW HOW SCAFFOLDING MAY BE PUT UP. (CLINTON.) 

up should be made plumb, and should be toe-nailed at 
the top to one of the posts originally set," 



SILOS. 



89 



A good way of starting the building of a stave silo 
is illustrated in figures 28 and 29. Some manufacturers 
of stave silos furnish such silo fronts, all Joined to- 
gether and ready to set in place, at a small extra charge, 
with battens D, D, bolted on, and dowel-pinned 

together; after the front is 
up and braced so that it 
stands perfectly perpendicular 
every way, the silo is built by 
adding a stave at a time to this 
front, each stave being firmly 
fastened by cleats on the inside, 
one near the top, one in the 
middle and one near the bot- 
tom (fig. 30). According to 
Professor Clinton, old staves of 
sugar barrels are best adapted 
for a silo, 12 feet in diameter, 
while the flour barrel stave best 
fits the- curve of a 16-foot silo, 
and staves of the cement barrel 
that of silos 20 feet in diameter 
or more. The staves are re- 
moved when the silo is all up. 

Doors. The arrangement of 
doors for stave silos illustrated 
in fig. 23 (see p. 82), will 
prove satisfactory if the work 
be carefully done. Manufactur- 
ers of stave silos have shown considerable inventiveness 
in constructing doors for such silos, some of wliieh have 
some good features, while others are open to criticism in 



C- 






- 




^ 




A 


^ 












e 


C-- - 


f 


s_ 


" 






/i 








_ 






' 














/i 










■*" 


""" 


- 










FIG. 28. SIX-STAVE SILO 

FRONT, READY TO 

BE PUT UP. 

A, A, A, Doors: C, C, 
C, Dowell Pins; D, D, D, 
Door Battens (Cap. Lbr. 
Co.). 



90 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



several ways. A couple of such patented doors, with stave 
silos of different manufacture, are shown in figures 
31A-33. The difficulty with several of the patented silo 
doors is that they have iron parts which are apt to rust 

and wear out, or 
they weaken the 
silo, or after some 
time get out of 
shape and fail to 
close tightly. Fig. 
33 shows a form 
of stave silos made 
by a New York 
manufacturer; in- 
stead of doors 
there are sections 
of staves put in 
horizontally across 
the opening; these 
sections are re- 
movable so as to 
form a continuous 
opening from the 
bottom to the 
top of the silo, 
through which the silage may be easily emptied; in addi- 
tion the cross-bars supporting the sections form a ladder 
which may be used in ascending or descending the silo 
(see p. 93). 

Before filling the silo the hoops should be drawn 
somewhat tight, but not perfectly so, so as to allow 
for the swelling of the staves from the moisture which 




Fig. 39. SETTING UP THE STAVE SILO IN 
SECTIONS. (HARDER.) 



SILOS. 



91 



they will take up from the corn. The hoops should be 
watched closely for some days after the silo has been 
filled, and if the strain becomes very intense the nuts 
should be slightly loosened so that the hoops will not be 
broken or the thread stripped. 

In order to prevent the collapse of the silo during 




FIG. 30. USE OF BARREL STAVES IN 
SETTING UP A STAVE SILO; THEY 
SHOULD BE REMOVED BEFORE 
THE SILO IS FILLED. 



FIG. 31. STAVE SILO, "KAL- 
AMAZOO SILO." (WIL- 
LIAMS MFG. CO.) 



the summer when it is empty and the staves have be- 
come thoroughly dried out, the hoops should be 
fastened with numerous staples; these will pre- 
vent the hoops from sagging or dropping down, and will 
also hold the staves in place. 



92 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

Boof. Tf hiiilt inside a barn or another farm bnild- 
ing, there will be no need of putting any roof on the 




FIG. 31 A. DOOR OF KALAMAZOO SILO. 




FIG. 32. DOOR OF STAVE SILO. (ELIAS.) 

stave silo. If the silo is built out of doors as an inde- 
pendent structure, some sort of a roof should be put on 
to keep out rain or snow. The roof provided for in the 



SILOS. 



93 



specifications for a 100-ton silo on p. 83 is described in 
the Xew York bulletin previously referred to and may 




FIG. 32a. side view of door OF STAVE SILO. (ELIAS.) 



/? ^ 





FIG. 34. A CHEAP ROOF OF STAVE SILO. 

A, B, and E, 2x6in.; C, 2x4in. ; D, C, 

FIG. 33. STAVE SILO WITH Enlarged Outside End; F, Hinges; G, 

CONTINUOUS OPENING IN H, I, Sections of Roof; J, K, 2x2in. 

FRONT. (HARDER.) (Van Norman). 

prove fairly efficient. Another construction of a cheap 
roof for a stave silo is shown in fig. S-i. It was built 



94 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



at the Indiana Experiment Station at a total cost of 
$10.50j viz., lumber $4, tin jout on and painted $6, and 
hardware 50 cents. Two 2x6 pieces (A, A) were placed 
on edge and toe-nailed to the top of the staves they 
rested on; the projection is for supporting the carrier at 
filling time. They are tied together by the short pieces 
E. The roof is in three sections, Gr, H and I. G and H 




FIG. 35. TWIN STAVE SILOS BUILT IN CONNECTION 
WITH BARN. (ELIAS.) 

are hinged to the frame A, A, and may be tipped np 
when the silo is nearly full, to allow filling to the top. 
The narrow middle section is light enough to lift off on 
either side, and leaves the opening for the carrier to 
deliver into. 

On the framework B, B, and C, C, cheap sheeting 
boards are nailed. This is then covered with tin, sold- 
ered joints and painted. The sections should be fast- 
ened down by means of staples and hooks, or other 
device; the hooks are used on this one. On the inner 



SILOS. 



95 



edge of G and H, 2x2-inch strips, K, are nailed. Close 
to these are j^laced similar strips, J, to which the cross- 
boards are nailed, forming the section I of the roof. 
The tin on the section I should come over the edge on to 
J. On the other sections it should run up on the side 
of K, making a water-tight joint. 

The sections G and H have a slope of nearly 3 inches, 
being the difference in height of A and C. C is notched 
one inch at the outer end. (YanNorman in Hoard's 
Dairyman.) 




FIG. 36. TWIN STAVE SILO, KENOSHA COUNTY, WIS. 

Protection against freezing. If the silo is built out- 
doors in any of the Northern states, it is necessary to 
provide some special means to keep the silage from 
freezing in case this is considered a very objectionable 
feature. The silo may be inclosed by a wide jacket of 
rough boards nailed to four uprights, leaving the sec- 
tion of the silo where doors are, easy of access; the 
sj^ace between the silo and outside jacket is filled with 
straw in the fall; this may be taken out and used for 



96 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



bedding in the spring, thus allowing the staves to be 
thoroughly dried out during the summer, and prevent- 
ing the silo from rotting. 

The plan of a stave silo given by Prof. King of Wis- 
consin Experiment Station is shown in fig. 37. It is 
made with tongued and grooved staves four to six inches 



^^^mmm^^ 




F 



FIG. 37. CONSTRUCTION OV THE STAVE SILO, AND OF A MODIFICATION 
OF THE STAVE SILO (H.) (KING.) 

wide, and is hooped with metal hoops and metal tight- 
eners. In the figure, the construction of the silo is 
shown in A-G, while H shows the construction of an 
all-wood silo where matched flooring forms the lining 
and is put on in the manner of staves. The door, F, Gr, 
is made of two layers of 4-inch matched flooring 
with a layer of 2-ply saturated acid- and alkali- 
proof paper between ; it is held in place with 



SILOS. 



97 



large screws or lag bolts, and opens inside. The shoulder 
against which the door shuts, should be lined with 2-ply 
P. and B. Ruberoid paper, or its equivalent. The cleats 
for the doors are cut to the curve of the silo, as shown 
at G. The staves, C, are beveled to fit the circle. The 
hoops are f-inch round rods provided with iron tight- 
eners, as shown at D, instead of wood as is being used 
by many. The wood is not durable enough, and is liable 
to give way in time when the silo is full. The iron 




FIG. 38. STAVE SILO BUILT IN CONNECTION WITH A CHEAP AND 
EFFECTIVE DAIRY BARN. (ELIAS.) 



tighteners are furnished by manufacturers of stave silos. 
If staves are spliced, the joint is made tight, as shown in 
B at a, by putting a piece of galvanized hoop iron in a 
saw-cut in the ends of the two staves where they meet. 
In the substitute for the stave silo shown at H, the 
outside is much like the all-wood silo, and the lining 
consists of matched 4-inch flooring nailed to girts cut 
in between the studs as shown at H. In the opinion 
of Professor King, such silos, besides being warmer, 



98 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 




I 



1 



1 



Os= 


in 

r 






r 




r 




r 




< 

r 


r 








r 


0— 


^ 



> 

u 

< 

71 

O 

lU 
Id 



zr 


■^ 


^ 


0) 


J 




^ 


J 


^ 




^ 




J 




\\ 


-J 


J 




■^ 








■^ 


< 


J 




^ 




^ 




^ 


h 


T- 










10 



1 



IL/ 



I 

\1 



SILOS. 



99 



more durable and tighter, may be built as cheaply as 
a first-class stave silo. 

The manner of connecting stave, as well as other 




'^T^zir^ 



FIG. 40, STAVE SILO BUILT IN CONNECTION WITH A STOCK 
BARN. (ELI AS.) 




FIG. 41. TWIN STAVE SILOS LOCATED ON THE SIDES OF A 
STOCK BARN. (ELIAS.) 

round wooden silos with stock barns is illustrated in 
many of the pictures of such silos given in this book ; a 
few more illustrations are shown above which will sug- 

utfa 



100 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAG^^. 



gest methods that may be adopted in building silos in 
connection with barns ; see figures 38-41, inclusive. 

Calculation of staves required for stave silos. The 
following table will be found useful in calculating the 
number of staves required for silos of different diam- 
eters, and the feeding areas which these will give : 

Circumferences and Areas of Circles. 



Diameter; 
Feet. 


Circum- 
ference, 
Feet. 


Area, 

Square 

Feet. 


Diameter, 
Feet. 


Circum- 
ference, 
Feet. 


Area, 

Square 

Feet. 


8 


25.1 


50.3 


21 


66.0 ■ 


346.4 


9 


28.3 


63.6 


22 


69.1 


380.1 


10 


31.4 


78.5 


23 


72.3 


415.5 


11 


34.6 


95.0 


24 


75.4 


452.4 


12 


37.7 


113.1 


25 


78.5 


490.9 


13 


40.8 


132 7 


26 


81.7 


530 9 


14 


44.0 


153 9 


27 


84.8 


572.6 


15 


47.1 


176.7 


28 


88.0 


615 8 


16 


50.3 


201 1 


29 


91.1 


660 5 


17 


53 4 


227.0 


30 


94.2 


706.9 


18 


56.5 


254 5 


31 


97.4 


754.8 


19 


59.7 


283.5 


32 


100.5 


804.2 


20 


62 8 


314.2 









To find the circumference of a circle, multiply the 
diameter by 3.1416. 

To find the area of a circle, multiply the square of 
the diameter by 0.7854. 

To find the cubical content of a cylinder, multiply the 
area of the base (floor) by the height. 

Example. — A silo 16 feet in diameter and 26 feet high 
is wanted; how many staves 2x6 inches will be needed, 
and what will be the feeding area in the silo and its ca- 
pacity? 

The circumference of a circle 16 feet diameter is 50.3 
feet; there will therefore be required 50.3^1/^=101 staves, 
2x6 inches, 26 feet high, or if staves of this height cannot 
be obtained, either 127 staves 21 feet long or 135 staves 



SILOS. 101 

20 feet long. The feeding area will be 15 2-3X15 2-3 X 
0.7854=192.8 square feet, and the cubical content of the 
silo 192.8X26=5012.8 cubic feet. Estimating the weight of 
a cubic foot of corn silage at 40 pounds, 5012.8 cubic feet 
silage would weigh 200,512 pounds, or 100 tons, which is 
the approximate capacity of a round silo of the dimensions 
given. 

III. Sqttare or Rectatigular Wooden Silos. 

Xearly all silos built in this country prior to 1891 
were square or rectangular, and were built either in 
bays of barns or as independent structures. As already 
stated, they were relatively shallow, while those built 
during late years have had considerable depth, like the 
round silos built during this period. Silos of this type 
differ in their construction according to whether they are 
built inside of barns or as separate buildings, and we 
shall therefore consider these two kinds under separate 

headings. 

A. Silos in the Bam. 

A large number of silos have been built in a bay of 
the barn. Where the necessary depth can be obtained 
and where the room can be spared, such silos can be 
built very easily and at less cost than a separate struc- 
ture, since lighter materials in construction may be 
used in this case, and no roof will be required for the 
silo. Silos built in this manner have generally the 
advantage over other silos in being near at hand. This 
is a very important point; feeding time comes twice 
a day throughout the winter and spring, and a few steps 
saved in hauling the silage mean a good deal in the 
aggregate. Many farmers first made silos of this kind, 
and later on, when familiar with the process, built 
additional separate structures. 



102 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

Ba3^s of the barn may be easily changed into silos 
according to the following directions given by Professor 
Whitcher : 

"Eemove floors, and if there is a barn cellar, place 
sills on the bottom of this and set 2x8 scantling ver- 
tically, bringing np the inside edges even with the sills 
of the barn. The bottom may or may not be cemented, 
according as the ground is wet or dry. If to be cement- 
ed, three casks of cement and an equal amount of sharp 
sand or gravel will cover a bottom 16x16 and turn up on 
the sides two feet, which will give a tight silo. Com- 
mon spruce or hemlock boards, square-edged and planed 
on one side, are best for boarding the inside of the silo ; 
these are to be put on in two courses, breaking Joints, 
and, if thoroughly nailed, will give a tight silo. No 
tonguing or matching is needed. Tarred paper may be 
put between the boarding, if desired, but I doubt if it 
is of great utility. At some point most easily accessible, 
an opening extending nearly the height of the silo must 
be made, to put in the corn and take out the silage. 
The courses of boards should be cut shorter than the 
opening, to allow loose boards to be set in, lapping on 
the door studding and making an air-tight joint. For 
all this work medium lumber is good enough, and a very 
limited amount of mechanical skill and a few tools, 
which all farms should have, will enable most farmers 
to build their own silo. A few iron rods, one-half inch 
in diameter, may be necessary to prevent spreading by 
side pressure, but this will depend upon the strength 
of the original frame of the barn. Narrow boards, from 
five to eight inches wide, are better than wide ones, as 
they are not likely to swell and split. Eight-penny 



SILOS. 103 

nails for the first boarding and twelve-penny nails for 
tJie second course will hold the boards in place. 

"A silo constructed as above outlined will cost from 
50 cents to $1 for each ton of its capacity, according as 
all materials, including lumber and stone, are charged, 
or only labor and nails, rods, and cement.^' 

John Gould's $-1:3 Silo. — The well-known agricul- 
tural writer and lecturer, John Gould, of Ohio, has de- 
scribed his one-hundred-ton silo built in one-half of a 
bay of his barn at a cost of $43. As it may be helpful 
to some farmers, we give below the full description of the 
silo. Mr. Gould says : "Having become convinced that 
cheaper material than that usually employed could be 
used, and even stone and cement discarded, I set out 
viiih this end in view. The barn has a basement of 
eight feet beneath it. This was utilized to make the 
silo deeper, making it twenty -two feet in depth and 
fourteen feet square inside. 

''Frame of Silo. — On one side (E) I had the backing 
of my old silo, and on the opposite side (B) a stone 
w^all of eight feet. On the two sides, B and C, the stud- 
ding only had the center backing of the sill, and cross- 
beam at C, eight feet from the basement floor. The 
bottom of the silo was leveled off, and a footing made 
for the studs on the B and C sides by digging a trench, 
about 12 inches wide and 6 inches deep, under where 
the studding would come. Two sticks of timber, 6x12 
inches, were thoroughly saturated with gas- or coaLtar, 
and laid in these trenches, and made solid by tamping 
them at sides. The studding, 2x6 inches, were 
hoisted in place and set about 18 inches apart, made 
perpendicular by the aid of a spirit level, and on the 



104 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

sills toe-nailed with 20-penny wire spikes. The stud- 
ding against the wall were allowed to rest against it 
without a sill, and the studding of the old silo came 
in for double duty, its own wall becoming now a parti- 
tion. On the A and B sides, false girths were added 
to those of the barn frame by building out with an 
8-inch plank, so that they would be flush with the in- 
side facing of the sill. This also lends additional 
strength to the barn frame, and makes three more back 
supports for the silo, and avoids at the same time ^cob- 
bling' or bridging to connect barn and silo. 

"The silo was then sheeted up inside with cheap, but 
good, sound, $8 per 1,000 feet, inch-lumber, taking 
1,230 feet, costing $9.85. The whole inside was then 
papered up and down with a 3-inch lap with tarred 
building paper, costing 80 cents per roll, taking some- 
what less than three rolls, or $2 more. The silo was 
then finished up by covering this inside again with inch 
cull pine lumber, single and unfaced, so put on that it 
half lapped the cracks of the first boarding, the second 
layer being tacked on with 10-penny wire nails. This 
lumber was not even jointed or matched, and all put 
on horizontally, so that there can be no up and down 
cracks for the escape or entry of air. If a board did 
not joint closely upon the one below it, a little of its 
round or concave was taken off with a draw-shave, and a 
nail or two driven ^toeing' to bring it down snugly. 
This coating of lumber cost, for 1,230 feet, at the rate 
of $13 per 1,000, making a bill of $16, and for surfac- 
ing $1 more; total, $17. 

^^ Painting the Lining. — Six gallons of gas tar, cost- 
ing 24 cents, and 2^ gallons of gasoline, costing 25 



SILOS. 105 

cents, were compounded, and the whole inside of the 
silo painted with it, the application being rapidly per- 
formed with a wash-brush. The gasoline causes the 
gas tar to strike in rapidly and dry quickly. After using 
hot tar and resin, and then this last, I greatly prefer 
it, and there is less danger of burning one's self. 

''Doors. — Selecting the space between two studs at 
the middle of the wall C as the handiest place for tak- 
ing out the silage, commencing at about three feet from 
the top, the boarding was sawed down close to each stud, 
eight feet. A strip was then made for three feet, to 
allow the center of the silo the full end strength of 
three boards. Another doorway was cut five feet and 
to within three feet of the bottom. An inch-by-four 
strip was then nailed on to each stud, on the outside 
and close up to the boards. The short lengths were all 
put back into their places in the order in which they 
were cut out, making a very close-fitting door. The 
boards were lightly fastened, and over each, on the in- 
side, is hung a curtain made of a piece of tarred paper, 
two feet longer and a foot or more wider than the door. 
When the silo is filled the pressure of the silage against 
the paper makes an almost absolutely air-proof door, 
and it is the cheapest and best devised. 

''Floor of Silo. — For the floor the original clay was 
used. Commencing in the center of the pit the clay 
was removed and thoroughly packed along the walls, 
making the bottom of the silo somewhat concave. This 
throws the great weight and pressure of the silage into 
this depression, and relieves the silo of so much strain. 
If the silo has natural drainage, and one is sure of 
reasonably dry footing, clay is in all respects preferable 



106 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



to a grout or cement bottom, and cheapens the cost of 
the silo by so much. I now have my silo complete. The 
lumber and labor bill is : 

Sills $ 1.00 

Studdings 9.00 

Inside facing 17.00 

Nails 1.50 

Sheeting 9.85 

Paper 3.00 

Paint 50 

Hired man 2.00 



Total « $42.85 

" This does not include my own labor for four and a half 
days." 

Fig. 42 shows a small, square silo, built inside of a 
Michigan barn ; dimensions, 8 feet square, and 23 feet 




FIG. 42. VIEW or A SITiO, 8 FEET SQUARE, 23 FEET DEEP, BUILT 
INSIDE OF BARN. (SMITH.) 



SILOS. 107 

deep. The capacity of the silo is about 28 tons. It is 
built of 2x8 horizontal studding, placed lapped at the 
corners and held together with 5 twenty-penny nails, 
wire spikes, in each corner. The spaces between these 
frames, from the bottom to the top, are 2^, 2J, 3, 4, 5 
and 5 feet. The siding consists of one thickness of 
matched white-pine flooring, six inches wide; it is 
nailed on vertically and painted on both sides with 
Venetian red and oil. No paper is used. The corners 
are filled out by 2x6 scantling properly beveled and 
nailed in vertically. Each door is 2 feet wide and made 
of sufficient length to lap an inch when placed between 
a certain pair of horizontal ribs; toward the bottom of 
the silo the doors are therefore 2J feet wide, while 
toward the top they are 5 feet high. Battens of 1x4 
pine are placed over the cracks on the sides of the doors 
and nailed to' the wall of the silo. No hinges are used, 
the pressure of the silage keeping the doors in place. 

The bottom frame, formed by the 2x8 studdings, 
rests on the clay bottom of the barn cellar. The silo 
has no foundation, but the hard clay bottom is cemented 
with Buffalo cement, one inch thick, to keep out rats. 
Cost of materials, $30.00. (Mich. Experiment Station, 
spec. bull. No. 6.) 

B. Separate Square or Rectangular Wooden Silos. 

Like other kinds of silos, square or rectangular silos 
built as outside independent structures may be made 
of wood, stone or grout. In most of the agricultural 
States in the Union wooden silos can be built cheaper 
than either stone or grout silos. While they may not 



108 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



last as long as the latter types, even with the best of care 
in both building and maintenance, they will last for a 
large number of years if the necessary precautions for 
their preservation are taken. The general directions for 
building silos of this type are similar to those given on 
p. 44. They may be built by placing 3x10 pieces as stud- 
ding one foot apart, and boarding on the inside with 
matched boards or shiplap, or with two layers of siding 
with building paper between ; and on the outside, build- 
ing paper, over which common boards are 
nailed. If double lining is used, the first 
one is nailed on the studding horizontally, 
and the second vertically. 

In building a square or rectangular 
silo more than 30 feet deep, Professor 
Plumb recommends making sills of 
3xl3-inch planks, in two layers, halved 
and spiked at the 
corners (Fig. 43). ■'■ 

These sills are held 
in place by bolts, ^ ^ 
well anchored in the 
foundation wall 
(Fig. 44). The stud 
(1) should be blocked against a strip (3) nailed 
to the sill, and a bolt (4) driven through the sill 
(3, 3) into the wall (5, 5). The 3xl3-inch studs are 
toe-nailed to the sills, 18 inches apart from center to 
center. The base of each stud is cut on the outside 
against a 3x4-inch piece spiked along the outer line of 
the sill, to prevent spreading. 

There is a good deal of difference of opinion as to the 



FIG. 43. FASTENING OF SILLS AT 
THE CORNERS. (PLUMB.) 



SILOS. 



109 



/ 




silo lining, several observing farmers claiming that 
double boarding, with or without tarred paper between, 

will rot before a one-layer lining 
of sound matched lumber or 
shiplap, free from cracks and 
checks, put on horizontally. Mr. 
H. B. Gurler, the well-known 
Illinois dairyman, says on this 
point in a communication to the 
author : "My first silo was built 
with a single boarding on inside 
of studdings. This was a good 
quality of matched lumber, and 
it is still sound after having been 
filled eleven times ; I cannot find 
any signs of decay, or at least 
could not before filling last fall. 
The second silo I built was with 

1, stud blocked against s. -i ^ -i n . . -, .,i 

strip, 2. nailed to the sill, double walls lusidc. With paper 
3; 4, bolt driven through the between. I am Confident that 

sill into the wall, 5. (Plumb.) -i .-i^ , ^^ 

decay will sooner cause trouble 
with these walls, as I can see the effect of it 
now in some places, and this after nine fillings. I 
imagine moisture from the corn gets through the joints 
before it swells these tight, and saturates the paper, thus 
causing decay. I think if building now I should select 
sound, kiln-dried lumber for the inside and put on one 
thickness." 

Professor Robertson, the Commissioner of Agriculture 
of Canada, also recommends a single lining for wooden 
silos. He says : "I have found one ply of sound 1-inch 
lumber, tongued and grooved, and nailed horizontally 



FIG. 44. FOUNDATION OF 
SQUARE SILOS. 



110 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



on the inside of studs, 2 inches by 10 inches or 2 inches 
by 12 inches, to be sufficient. I did bnild silos with four 
ply of lumber and tar j)aper between them; and I could 
not keep the silage any better than with one ply of lum- 
ber, tongued and grooved or planed on the edges." 

In a letter to the writer, Mr. John Gould, of Ohio, 
says on this point : "I suppose that within a few miles 







FIG. 45. RECTANGULAR WOODEN SILO. 

Dimensions, 48x24 feet, 22 feet high. 



of me there are 100 silos built with a single lining of 
inch Georgia pine flooring, all giving the best of satis- 
faction. I think them a great success.'' 

Unless the lumber is very carefully selected, a single 
lining will not be likely to prove satisfactory. It would 
seem, however, that such silos, well built and cared for, 
may outlast silos having three or four-ply lumber for 
inside lining, which are poorly ventilated. 

No filling material is necessary or desirable in the 



SILOS. 



Ill 



dead air spaces formed by the studding and the outside 
and inside facing ; air is a better non-condnctor of heat 
than sawdust, chaff, or any other material which has 
been recommended for this purpose. 

As before stated, deep silos are better than shallow 
ones, and square ones better than rectangular, as they 
require less lumber. For the same and other reasons 
circular silos are to be preferred to either of these forms. 
Another point in favor of the round silo is the absence of 
corners in this type of silos, the whole inside forming 

a smooth, round 



^^ 



I 



^ 



I 



a- 



wall; corners are 
always objection- 
able in a silo on 
account of the lia- 
bility to loss of 
silage through 
spoiling, which 
may take place 
there from the 
difficulty of en- 
tirely preventing 
the access of air 
at these points. 
To avoid the loss of silage in the corners of square 
or rectangular silos they should be partially rounded 
off by placing a square timber, split diagonally, in each 
of the corners; another plan is to bevel the edge of a 
ten-inch plank and nail it in the corners, filling in 
behind perfectly with dry earth or sand; sawdust has 
been recommended, but it should not be used, as it 
will draw moisture and cause the plank and silo lining 



FIG. 46. CROSS-SECTION OF 
THE STUDDING AT THE CORNER 
OF A RECTANGULAR SILO. 

Half-inch bolts are used to 
hold the 2x4 and 2x6 to- 
gether. The bolts are not 
more than 18 inches apart 
from the bottom up to 
about the middle of the 
studding. Above the mid- 
dle they may be 2 feet 
apart; they may be re-in- 
forced by 30 d. nails. 
(Spillman.) 



112 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



to decay; the space back of the plank may also be left 
empty. 

The difficulty of excluding the air from the corners 
of rectangular or square silos may be obviated in the 
manner suggested by Spillman and shown in Fig. 46. 
The illustration, with legend, is self-explanatory. 

Another arrangement for making the corners of a 
rectangular or square silo air-tight is shown in Fig. 47, 
taken from Geneva Experiment Station Bulletin No. 
102, by Professor Wheeler. The corners are boarded 

up, as shown in the 
figure, a sheathing 
of paper going be- 
tween the two 
courses of boards. 
The partitions at 
the corners can be 
put across after the 
fi r s t course o f 
boards, instead of 
after the second 
lining is in place, as 
shown in the illus- 
tration. Still another arrangement is explained in 
Rural New Yorker, 1899, p. 478. 

A Primitive Colorado Silo. — Professor Cooke 
gives an account of a wooden silo, made at the Colorado 
College Farm, which is still cheaper than Mr. Gould's 
silo, previously described — and also more primitive. 
"The climatic conditions in large 'sections of the West 
are such as to allow silos to be built very deep into the 
ground and render roof unnecessary. The silo was built 




FIG. 47. CORNER OF RECTANGULAR 
SILO. (WHEELER.) 



SILOS. ■ 113 

oh a slight slope; a hole, 21 feet square and 8 feet 
deep, was dug out with the plow and scraper. The only 
hand work necessary was in the corners and on the sides. 
Inside this hole a 2x6 sill was laid on the ground ; 2xG 
studding, 12 feet long, was erected every 2 feet, and a 
2x6 plate put on top. This framework was then sheeted 
on the inside with a single thickness of unmatched, 
unplaned, rough boards, such as can be bought almost 
anywhere for $12 per 1,000. 

"The inside was lined with a single thickness of tarred 
building paper, held in place by perpendicular slats. 
The floor was made by wetting and tramping the clay at 
the bottom, while the heavens above made an excellent 
and very cheap roof. The dirt was tilled in against the 
sides, and banked up to within two feet of the top, ex- 
cept on the lower side, where were doors, reaching from 
near the top to within four feet of the bottom. All labor 
was done by the farm hands and teams, and could as 
easily be done by any farmer on his own farm. 

"The bill for material stands as follows: 



240 feet, 2x6, for sill and plate. 

528 *• 2x6, 12 feet long, for studding. 

960 ' ' rough boards for sides. 

1,728 " lumber, at $12 per M $20.74 

Nails, lath, and building paper 7.00 

$27.74 

"Had the hole been two feet deeper, and the sides two 
feet higher, with one partition, the twp pits would then 
have been each 10x20 feet, and 16 feet deep, with a total 
capacity of 100 tons of silage ; while the cost of materials 



114 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

would have been $44. Thus^ a silo can be built in Colo- 
rado for less than 50 cents for each ton capacity." 

Silos with Horizontal Girts. 

The illustration, Fig. 48, taken from Farmers' Bul- 
letin 1^0. 32 (Silos and Silage, by Prof. C. S. Plumb), 




FIG. 48. CONSTRUCTION OF A DOUBLE SILO WITH HORIZONTAL 
GIRTS. (GULLEY.) 

shows a double silo with a framing consisting of hori- 
zontal girts. This kind of silo has been tried with good 
results. "In the figure, a, a represents the door, of 



SILOS. 



115 



which the five sections extend from sill to plate. Each 
pit is 18 feet, square inside and 20 feet deep. Each out- 




FIG. 49. CONSTRUCTION OF CORNER JOINT AND CROSS-WALL INTER- 
SECTION OF HORIZONTAL GIRT SILO. (GULLEY.) 

side girt is made of three planks, 2x10 inches, 20 feet long. 
The plate consists of two such planks. The girts of the 




FIG. 50. CONSTRUCTION OF DOOR OF HORIZONTAL GIRT 
SILO. (GULLEY.) 

cross-wall are made of 2x8 planks. The girts are nearer 
together toward the bottom of the silo where greater 



116 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

strength is required. The distances between these hori- 
zontal girts, measured from the upper surface of one to 
the lower surface of the next higher, beginning at the 
sill, are, respectively, 2'6", 3', 3'6", 3'9" and 4'5". 

Fig. 49 shows the details of the joint at the corner 
and at the intersection of cross-wall and outer girt, s, s 
are short supports of 2x6 plank between the different 
girts, a, a cross brace of 2x6 lumber, which, while 
strengthening the joints, dispenses with a right angle 
inside corner. Two half-inch iron bolts are used in each 
joint in addition to a number of 20d. and 40d. nails. 

Fig. 50 shows details of the door, of which there is 
one section between each pair of girts. Where one section 
of the door joins another or touches the silo lining a 
lap-joint is formed. 

The following shows the materials used for this double 
silo, omitting only the sheathing and battens, which 
serve as a protection against the weather. 

Feet. 
105 pieces 2 by 10 inches by 20 feet, sills, girts, and 

plates 3,500 

18 pieces 2 by 8 inches by 20 feet, sills, girts, and 

plates, cross-wall 540 

35 pieces 2 by 6 inches by 18 feet, supports and cross 

corner braces 630 

300 pieces 1 by 12 inches by 20 feet lining planks 6,000 

44 pieces 2 by 4 inches by 14 feet rafters 462 

1 by 4 inch roof sheathing 800 

11,932 

3,000 square feet tarred building paper, 10,000 shingles, 
751/^ by 7 inch iron bolts, 150 i/^-inch washers, 1 keg 
fortypenny nails, 2 kegs twentypenny nails, 2 kegs ten- 
penny nails, 1 keg eightpenny nails, 30 pounds fourpenny 
nails, 



SILOS. U'lf 

Brick foundation wall 12 inches thick, 18 inches high: 
4,500 bricks, 2 barrels lime, 2 barrels cement. 

IV. Stone or Brick Silos. 

These silos are usually more expensive than wooden 
ones, but, in return, they will last longer when carefully 
built. Some of the first silos built in Wisconsin and 
other Northwestern states were made of stone, and are 
still in good condition, Avhich can not be said about the 
earliest wooden silos made. Stone silos are easily built, 
being just like a cellar wall, if possible without any 
opening except the door, and provided with a roof like 
any other silo. The walls should be at least sixteen 
inches thick, and should be jacketed with wood on the 
outside, to prevent injury from frost, and to form dead- 
air spaces, wdiich will insure perfect preservation of the 
silage clear up to the silo wall. The earlier stone silos 
built were not protected in this manner, and, as a result, 
the silage often spoilt several inches around the walls, 
the stone being more or less porous, and being a fairly 
good conductor of heat and cold. This applies still 
more to brick than to stone w^alls. With the outside 
covering nailed to studdings, 2x4, no trouble will, how- 
ever, be experienced in either case. A^entilation of the 
silo frame must be provided for as in the case of wooden 
silos. 

The following arrangement of constructing stone silos 
has proved very convenient, and will make good, sub- 
stantial silos. The silo is built five to six feet into the 
ground, if it can safely be done ; the foundation wall is 
made two feet thick, and at the level of the ground a 
4x6 sill is laid on the outer edge of the wall and bedded 



118 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



in mortar ; a wooden frame is then erected of 2x6 stud- 
ding, sheeted on the inside with common flooring, and on 
the outside with ship lap boarding, with or without 
building paper on the studding. The stone wall is then 
continued on the inside of this wooden frame up to the 
plate, the corners well rounded off, and the whole in- 
side cemented. 

The stone or brick wall must be made smooth by 




FIG. 51. CONSTRUCTION OF CIRCULAR AI.L-STONE SILO. (KING.) 

means of a heavy coat of a first-class cement. Since the 
acid juices of silage are apt to gradually soften the 
cement, it may be found necessary to protect the coating 
by a whitewash with pure cement every other year be- 
fore the silo is filled. If this precaution is taken, the 
silo will last for generations ; some of the earliest stone 
silos built in this country have now^ been filled every 



SILOS. 119 

season for over twenty years without deteriorating per- 
eeptibl}^ 

Like the wooden silos, stone silos may be rectangular, 
square, or circular; if built according to either of the 
first two forms, the corners should be rounded off so 
as to assist the settling of the siloed mass, and avoid loss 
through insufficient packing of the mass in the corners. 

The construction of a round all-stone silo given by 
Prof. King is shown in Fig. 51. A shows a section of 
the silo, with conical roof, and the arrangement of fill- 
ing, and feeding doors. B and C, are ground plans of 
circular and rectangular stone silos ; D, E, F show con- 
struction of feeding doors. The construction of the door 
jambs, to make them air tight, will be seen in the illus- 
tration. The doors are made from 2 layers of 4-inch 
matched flooring, with a layer of 2-ply saturated 'acid- 
and alkali-proof paper, and are held in place with large 
screws or lag bolts, as shown in E and F. The face of 
the jambs should be lined with 2-ply P. and B. Ruberoid 
paper or its equal; this will act as a gasket to make the 
door perfectly air-tight. 

V. Grottt Silos. 

Where stone is scarce, and lumber high, the best silo 
is made of grout. Grout silos may be made according 
to the following directions : "Having excavated for the 
silo, dig a trench all around the bottom, and fill it with 
cobblestone, and from one corner lead a drain, if pos- 
sible, so as to carry off all water. The trench under 
the proposed walls of the silo being filled with cobble- 
stones, place standards of scantling long enough to ex- 
tend 12 inches higher than the top of the wall when it is 



120 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

finished. Place these standards on each side of the pro- 
posed wall, and if yon desire the walls to be 20 inches 
thick, place the standards 23 inches apart, a pair of 
standards being placed every 5 or 6 feet around the 
entire foundation; be particular to have the standards 
exactly plumb, and in line ; fasten the bottoms of stand- 
ards firmly in the ground, or by nailing a strip of wood 
across at the bottom of the standards, and a little below 
where the floor of the silo will be; fasten the tops of 
the standards by a heavy cross-piece securely nailed, 
and fasten the pairs of standards in their plumb posi- 
tions by shores reaching the bank outside. Planks IJ 
inches thick and 14 inches wide are now placed edgewise 
inside the standards, 20 inches apart, thus forming a 
box, 14 inches deep, and running all along and around 
the entire foundation of the proposed wall. Fill this 
box with alternate layers of cobble-stone or any rough 
stone, etc., and mortar or- concrete. First a layer of 
mortar, and then a layer of stones, not allowing the 
stones to come quite out to the boxing plank, but having 
concrete over the edges; the concrete must be tamped 
down solid. 

The concrete is prepared as follows : One part of good 
cement is mixed thoroughly with four parts of dry 
sand, and then with six parts of clear gravel ; make into 
a thin mortar, sprinkling with water over the same by 
means of a sprinkler, and use at once. Put an inch or 
two of this mortar into the box, and then bed in cobble- 
stones; fill in with mortar, again covering the stones, 
and again put in a layer of stone. When the box is 
filled, and the mortar ^^set" so that the wall is firm, raise 
the box one foot, leaving two inches lap of plank on wall 



SILOS. 121 

below, and go around again, raising the wall one foot 
each day, or every second day, according to the amount 
of labor on hand. If no gravel is obtainable, nse five 
barrels of sand to one of cement, and bed in all the 
cobble-stones possible. Stones with rough edges are bet- 
ter than smooth ones, as they bind the wall more thor- 
oughly, but any flat stones found about the fields will 
do as well. A layer of loose cobble-stones should be 
placed against the outside wall before the earth is 
brought against it, so as to have an air space, and a free 
passage for water. 

As in case of the stone silos, the inside walls of grout 
silos must be made perfectly smooth, and preserved 
from softening by means of occasional whitewashings 
with pure cement; they must also be protected from 
frost by an outside wooden lining nailed on the 2x4 
studding. 

VI. Metal Silos. 

Solid steel silos have been put on the market, but it 
is not known what kind of results they have given in the 
limited number of cases where they have been tried in 
practice. They are built of homogeneous steel plate, 
lapped and double-riveted so as to make them perfectly 
air-tight. According to Professor Waters, the cost is 
about $4 per ton capacity, or more than three times the 
amount which will build a first-class modern wooden 
silo. It is difficult to see what advantage a steel silo on 
the whole would have over these; the danger of frost 
is far greater in a metal silo than in a wooden one ; the 
silage juices will furthermore attack the steel, and slowly 
corrode the wall, in spite of any paint or preservative 
that may be put on the inside. 



132 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

VII. Silo Stacks. 

The practice of making stack silage has not been 
adopted in the United States, except as a mat- 
ter of experiment on ranches in semi-arid regions. It 
met with great favor in foreign countries wlien the silo- 
ing method first became known, especially in Great Brit- 
ain, where, according to official statistics, 1,362 persons 
in 1887 reported their intention of making silage stacks, 
against twenty-seven in 1886; the number given for 
1887 is half of the total nnmber of silos existing in that 
3'ear. No official data are at hand during late years, 
but as far as we are able to judge, silo stacks have 
increased far more rapidly in England than other silos. 
The main objections to silage stacks in this country 
are the danger of frost and of excessive fermentative 
losses on account of the drying-out and spoiling of the 
fodder on top and the sides. Until practical experiments 
have been made, we can not, however, know definitely 
how silo stacks would stand our climate; judging from 
the experience of foreign siloists, the}^ are not likely to 
ever become adopted here in preference to silo buildings 
of one kind or another, except, perhaps, on ranches 
in Western semi-arid regions, where silo building ma- 
terials are high and forage cheap. 

The stack system has been adopted, besides in G-reat 
Britain, in Sweden, on the European Continent, and in 
Australia with great success, if the reports of enthusi- 
asts be credited. There are mainly two systems in use, 
the Blunt and the Johnson silage press; the fodder is 
stacked in both systems and the stacks pressed down by 
heavy weights or by means of ratchet drums. The 



SILOS. 



123 



capacity of the Blunt press is about 100 tons. The 
amount of waste under English conditions is stated to 
be about H per cent and not to exceed 2 per cent, which 




FIG. 52. BLUNT'S SILO STACK, ROUND FORM 



the advocates of the system claim is less than interest 
on the money that has to be put into a separate silo 
structure. Eesults of German experiments do not, how- 
evir, show such small losses as those given above. Wolfe 



124 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



placed forty-eight tons of meadow ha}^ in a silo stack, 
from which quantit}^ onl}^ twenty-four tons of good sil- 
age was obtained; forty tons was weighed back in all, 
so that sixteen tons or 33 per cent must have spoiled 
on the top and the sides of the stack. Miiller obtained 




FIG. 53. BLUNT'S SILO STACK, SQUARE FORM. 



somewhat better results; 132 tons of vetch fodder and 
sugar beet leaves were stacked in a Blunt's silage press ; 
there was a loss on the outside and top amounting to 
about seven tons (5.4 per cent), while nearly 103 tons 
(77.9 per cent) of the silage was fed out to cattle. 

Recent Swedish experiments, on the other hand, 
showed that 48.4 per cent of the whole mass spoilt in a 



SILOS. 



125 



Blunt Press, and 35.7 per cent in another system of 
fetack silos (Hermelin stack). 




riG 51. joh:>son's silo stack. 




FIG. 55. CROSS-SECTION OF JOHNSON'S SILO STACK. 

There are signs that the stack system of siloing fod- 
ders is on the wane in Europe, and that high silos of 



126 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



similar materials and types as built during late years 
by American farmers and dairymen will gradually take 
their place. The writer, during the past winter (Jan., 
1899), received a letter of inquiry from a Swedish 
farmer, who has been making and feeding 1,000 tons 




FIG. 56. RAMSTROM'S silo STACK. 

of stack silage or more annually for a number of years 
past. I quote from the letter : "The silage has been so 
far made by means of Blunt presses; the quality has 
always been good, but these press devices have a number 
of inconveniences which diminish the economic value of 
the method. The total loss of pressed fodder is quite 
considerable and amounts, according to my observa- 
tions, to 25 to 35 per cent; this loss occurs partly 



SILOS. 127 

through spoiling on the outside, partly through fermen- 
tation, and partly, not least, through the expression of 
plant juices which continue to run off during several 
months. The dark-brown juice which runs off contains, 
of course, considerable amounts of nutrients, especially 
albuminoids; this is confirmed by the fact that where 
a silage stack has been standing, the vegetation, even 
five to six years later, shows a rank growth, more so than 
if a compost heap had been in the same place. The silo- 
ing of fodder in a silo stack is furthermore very expen- 
sive, and takes a great deal of both labor and time, since 
the fodder must be raised high by iiand, must be care- 
fully spread out evenly, and thoroughly tramped down. 
I have, therefore, decided to change to the American 
method with tall silos, and intend to build a 150-ton 
silo this coming spring — the first one in Sweden." 

VIII. Pits in the Ground. 

We mention this primitive form of silos in this con- 
nection and last, because they are of no practical im- 
portance at the present time and have only an historical 
interest. 

The first kind of silos made was simple trenches or 
pits dug in the ground, in ^^hich the grain or fodder to 
be preserved was buried, and covered with boards and a 
layer of earth. Sometimes the trench was cemented; 
in the earlier stages of underground silos, it was not. 
Immense quantities of sugar beet tops and beet pulp 
have been siloed in this way in Euro])e, especiall}^ in 
Germany and France. In this country, before silo 
structures proper liecame general, a few farmers, not 
wishing to risk much money on a system they knew only 




128 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

from hear-say, obtained their first silo experience in this 
simple way. 

An excavation about 30 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 
2^ feet deep was made in 1889, in a cornfield at the 
Kansas experiment station ; the soil was dry and sandy ; 
corn stalks with ears on were carefully piled in this 
pit in October, and the mass rolled with a heavy iron 
roller; the fodder was then covered with a four-inch 
layer of straw and twenty inches of earth. When the 
pit was opened late in December, the silage was found 
to be in a very excellent condition. 

This rather crude method of preserving fodder will, 
however, always be accompanied by large losses on ac- 
count of the excessive and faulty fermentations occur- 
ring during the siloing period. It can not, therefore, 
be recommended. Much the better plan to follow for 
the farmer intending to try silage, is to travel about a 
little before building and examine some modern silos; 
with the wide distribution of silos at the present date, 
he will usually not have far to go to find one or more 
of them. 

Silo Literature. 

The preceding descriptions of the various kinds 
of silos and the directions given for their construc- 
tion will, it is believed, in general answer the pur- 
pose of most farmers and dairymen. The directions 
given arc, however, necessarily to a certain extent gen- 
eral, and each farmer has to use his judgment when it 
comes to deciding both which kind of silo he had better 
build in his particular case and how a satisfactory, first- 
class silo can be built most cheaply under his conditions, 



SILOS. 329 

as to the materials to be used, the details of construc- 
tion, etc. Many of the various government experiment 
stations have issued publications describing silo con- 
struction, and farmers intending to build silos, who 
cannot consult with neighbors and benefit from their 
experience in this line, will do well to read what advice 
their own experiment station may have given as to the 
building of silos in their State. A list of station pub- 
lications on the subject of silos and silage is given here 
to acquaint the reader with the literature of the subject 
published in this country. The experiment stations 
furnish their publications free of charge to residents of 
their respective States, upon request, and in some cases 
publications are sent to non-residents as well. Many of 
the bulletins given in the list are, doubtless, now out of 
print, but those that are still available may be obtained 
b}'' addressing the director of the agricultural experi- 
ment station in the State in which the farmer resides.* 

LIST OP EXPERIMENT STATION PUBLICATIONS ON 
THE SUBJECT OF SILOS AND SILAGE, 1889-'99. 

(b. bulletin; r., report.) 

Arkansas.— Silage, A. E. Menke; r. II., 1889, pp. 68-77. 
Colorado. — An underground silo, W. W. Cooke and P. L. 

Watrous; b. 30, Pebruary, 1895, pp. 21-23. 
Indiana. — The Silo and Silage in Indiana, C. S. Plumb; b. 

40, June, 1892, pp. 65-81. 
Kansas. — Silos and Silage, E. M. Shelton; b. 6, June, 1889, 

pp. 61-74. 
Maryland.— Silos and Silage, A. I. Hay ward; r, 1889-1891. 



* Per a list of the agricultural experiment stations in 
the United States and Canada, with names of directors and 
post-office addresses, see Woll, Handbook for Parmers and 
Dairymen, 2d edition. New York, 1900, p. 409. 



130 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

Michigan. — Silos and Silage, S. Johnson; b. 47, April, 1889, 
45 pp. 

— Building Silos, Clinton D. Smith, spec. b. 6, De- 
cember, 1896, 17 pp. 

Mississippi. — Silos and Silage, B. Irby; b. 8, August, 1889, 
9 pp. 

Nebraska. — Silos and Ensilage, Jared G. Smith; b. 17, June, 
1891, pp. 7-22. 

New Hampshire. — Silage in Dairy Farming, G. H. Whitcher; 
b. 14, May, 1891, 8 pp. 

New York (Geneva). — Silage and Silos, W. P. Wheeler; 
b. 102, N. S., pp. 89-105. 

New York (Cornell). — The Construction of the Stave Silo, 
L. A. Clinton; b. 167, March, 1899, pp. 473-488. 

North Carolina. — Silos and Silage, F. E. Emery; b. 80, Oc- 
tober, 1891, 17 pp. 

Ohio. — Silos and Silage, J, F. Hickman; b. vol. II., No. 3, S. 
S., June, 1889, pp. 73-88. 

Oregon. — Silos and Silage, H. T. French; b. 9, February, 
1891, 8 pp. 

Pennsylvania. — Silos and Silo Building, H. J. Waters; Pa. 
Board of Agr., r. 1894, pp. 232-237. 

South Dakota.— Silos and Silage, E. C. Chilcott; b. 51, Feb- 
ruary, 1897, pp. 20-32. 

Virginia. — Silos and Silage, D. 0. Nourse; b. 53, pp. 53-80. 
— Cheap Silos in Virginia, D. 0. Nourse; b. 70, pp. 
115-119. 

Washington.— Silos and Silage, W. J. Spillman; b. 14, No- 
vember, 1894, 19 pp. 

Wisconsin. — Silo Building and Filling, L. H. Adams; b. 
19, April, 1889, pp. 5-15. 

—The Construction of Silos, F. H. King; b. 28, July, 
1891, 16 pp. 

— The Construction of Silos and the Making and 
Handling of Silage, F. H. King; b. 59, May, 1897, 31 pp. 

U. S. Department of Agriculture. — Silos and Silage, 0. S. 
Plumb; Farmers' Bulletin 32, November, 1895, 30 pp. 



SILOS. ' 131 

Ontario, Canada. — Ensilage, James W. Robertson; b, 32, Au- 
gust, 1888, 10 pp. 

— Fodder Corn and the Silo, James W. Robertson; 
b. 42, May, 1889, 15 pp. 

— The Silo and Corn Ensilage, C. C. James; b. 39 
(Bureau of Industries), April, 1892, 8 pp. 



Preservation of Silos. 

A silo building will prove a rather short-lived struc- 
ture unless special precautions are taken to preserve it. 
This holds good of all kinds of silos, but more especially 
of wooden ones, since a cement coating in a stone silo, 
even if only fairly well made, will better resist the action 
of the silage juices than the woodwork will be able to 
keep sound in the presence of moisture, high tempera- 
ture, and an abundance of bacterial life. We have seen 
that the inside of the walls of stone silos should be 
given a whitewash of pure cement as often as found 
necessary, which may be every two years, and perhaps 
not as often. The degree of moisture and acidity in the 
silage made is, doubtless, of importance in this respect, 
as a very sour silage made from immature corn will be 
likely to soften the cement coating sooner than so-called, 
sweet silage made from nearly mature corn. 

In case of wooden silos it is necessary to apply some 
material which will render the wood impervious to 
water, and preserve it from decay. A great variety of 
preparations have been recommended and used for this 
purpose. Coal tar has been applied by a large number 
of farmers, and has been found effective and durable. 
It may be put on either hot, alone or mixed with resin, 
or dissolved in gasoline. If it is to be applied hot, some 



132 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

of the oil contained in the tar must previously be burnt 
off. The tar is poured into an iron kettle, a handful of 
straw is ignited and thrown into the kettle, which will 
cause the oil to flash and burn off. The tar is suf- 
ficiently burnt when it will string out in fine threads, 
a foot or more in length, from a stick which has been 
thrust into the blazing kettle and afterwards plunged 
into cold water. The fire is then put out by placing a 
tight cover over the kettle. The kettle must be kept 
over the fire until the silo lining has been gone over. A 
mop or a small whisk broom cut short, so it is stiff, 
may serve for putting on the tar. 

Coal tar and gasoline have also been used by many 
with good success. About half a gallon of coal tar and 
two-thirds of a gallon of gasoline are mixed at a time, 
stirring it while it is being put on. Since gasoline is 
highly inflammable, care must be taken not to have any 
fire around when this mixture is applied. Asbestos paint 
has also been recommended for the preservation of silo 
walls, and would seem to be well adapted for this pur- 
pose. 

I have not seen any silo walls in better condition than 
those of a number of Wisconsin silos, preserved by ap- 
plication of a mixture of equal parts of boiled linseed 
oil and black oil, or one ]3art of the former to two of 
the latter. This mixture, applied every other year, be- 
fore filling time, seems to preserve the lining perfectly. 
In building round silos. Professor King recommends 
painting the boards with hot coal tar, and placing the 
painted sides face to face. Ordinary red ochre and lin- 
seed oil have also been used by some farmers; others 
prefer to line the whole inside with building paper every 



SILOS. 133 

time the silo is to be filled, in the manner explained by 
Mr. Gould. (See page 105.) 

La;thing and plastering of the silo walls are used by 
some farmers ; the method can not, however, be recom- 
mended, since the plastering is very apt to crack and 
break off, even if great care is taken to preserve the walls 
intact. 

Manufacturers of stave silos and fixtures put up 
special preparations for preserving the silos, which they 
send out ^Aith the staves. These are generally simple 
compounds similar to those given in the preceding, and 
are sold to customers at practically cost prices. 

Walls of wooden silos that have been preserved by 
one or the other of these methods will only keep sound 
and free from decay if the silos are built so as to insure 
good ventilation. Preservatives will not save a non- 
ventilated silo structure from decay. 

Cost of Silos. 

The cost of a silo will depend greatly on local condi- 
tions, as to price of labor and materials; how much 
labor has to be paid for ; the size of the silo, etc. The 
author, in the spring of 1895, made some inquiries in 
regard to this point among farmers in different States 
of the Union who have built silos, with the following 
results : 

The cheapest silos are those built in bays of barns, 
as would be expected, since roof and outside lining are 
here already at hand. Number of silos included, four- 
teen ; average capacity, 140 tons; average cost of silos, 
$92, or 65 cents per ton capacity. 



134 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

JSText come the square or rectangular wooden silos. 
Number of silos included, twenty-five: average capacity, 
194 tons; average cost of silos, $285, or $1,46 per ton 
capacity. 

The round silos follow closely the square. wooden ones 
in point of cost. Only seven silos were included, all 
hut one of which were made of wood. Average capacity, 
237 tons; average cost, $368, or $1.54 per ton capacity. 
The data for the six round wooden silos are as follows:. 
Average capacity, 228 tons; average cost, $346, or $1.52 
per ton capacity. The one round cement silo cost $500, 
and had a capacity of 300 tons (dimensions: diameter, 
30 feet; depth, 21 feet) ; cost per ton capacity, $1.67. 

The stone or cement silos are the most expensive in 
first cost, as is shown b}^ the data obtained. Number 
of silos included, nine; average capacity, 288 tons; 
average cost, $577, or $1.93 per ton capacity. 

The great difference in the cost of different silos of 
the same kind is apparent without much reflection. The 
range in cost per ton capacity in the 25 square wooden 
silos included in the preceding summary was from 70 
cents to $3.60. The former figure was obtained with a 
144-ton silo, 20x18x20 feet; and the latter with a 140- 
ton silo, built as follows: Dimensions, 14x28x18 feet; 
2x12x18 feet studdings, set 12 inches apart; two 
thicknesses of dimension boards inside, with paper be- 
tween, sheeting outside with paper nailed on studding; 
cement floor. Particulars are lacking as regards the 
construction of the first silo, beyond its dimensions. 

A good man}^ figures entering into the preceding sum- 
maries are doubtless somewhat too low, if all labor put 
on the silo is to be paid for, for in some cases the cost of 



SILOS. 135 

work done by the farmers themselves was not figured in 
with the other expenses. As most farmers would do 
some of the work themselves, the figures given may, 
however, be taken to represent the cash outlay in build- 
ing silos. In a general way, it may be said that a silo 
can be built in the bay of a barn for less than 75 cents 
per ton capacity ; a round or a good square or rectangu- 
lar wooden silo for about $1.50, and a stone or cement 
silo for about $2 per ton capacity, all figures being sub- 
ject to variations according to local prices of labor and 
materials. 

I believe that cheap, poorly-constructed silos have 
done more to prejudice large numbers of farmers against 
silage, and impede the progress of the silo, than any 
other one cause ; if it pa3^s to build a silo at all, it ^sljs 
to build a good one, and none but silos built to last 
should be put up, except to serve as a temporary relief 
until a good silo can be built. Many of the early wooden 
silos built were not made with an eye to the future, or 
rather, it was not then suspected that silos may be as 
easily destroyed as a few years' experience plainly showed. 
We now provide against the decay of the silo, as we have 
seen, by securing good ventilation, and by preserving 
the woodwork; in the cement or stone silo we white- 
wash with pure water-lime. In either case, it is gen- 
erally found convenient and advantageous to put in a 
cement or concrete floor. All these matters increase the 
cost of the silo, but in return, silos thus built will last 
for an indefinite lens^th of time, and will not require 
much outlay after first cost. 

Professor King figures, that round silos will cost about 
11 cents per square foot of surface, and on basis of tJiis 



136 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



figure arrives at tlie following cost of round silos of 
different dimensions. 

Approximate Cost of Round Wooden Silos, Thirty Feet 
Deep, their Capacities and Cost per Ton op Silage. 



i 






o 


i 


GQ 


■s 


c 
o 


fi.1 


^ 


o 
O 


t-l 


s.^ 


B 


o 
o 


Eh 
(-1 




•S 


'a 


ft 


002 


fl 


'3 


a. 


^ o 


d. 


o 


OQ 


^ o 


d 


o 


02 


C3 


e3 


E-( 


O 





33 


E-t 


o 


O 


O 




O 


O 


o 




u 


16 feet... 


105 


$239.26 


$2.28 


24 feet.... 


247 


$379.96 


$1.54 


17 feet. . . . 


119 


256.06 


2.15 


25 feet 


269 


398.58 


1.48 


18 feet 


135 


273.00 


2.03 


26 feet.... 


292 


417.34 


1.48 


19 feet.... 


150 


290.36 


1.92 


27 feet.... 


315 


436.52 


1.38 


20 Icct.... 


168 


307.86 


1.83 


28 feet... 


340 


455.70 


1.34 


21 feet.... 


187 


325.50 


1.74 


29 feet.... 


366 


475.16 


1.30 


22 feet. . . . 


206 


343.42 


1.67 


30 feet.... 


392 


494.76 


1.26 


23 feet 


226 


361.48 


1.60 


31 feet. ... 


419 


514.78 


1.23 



The data given in the preceding table show plainly 
that large silos are more economical than small ones. 
The expense per ton capacity of a 400-ton silo is thus 
only a little more than half of that of a 100-ton silo; 
the cost per ton capacity of the two silos being $2.28 
and $1.23, for a 100- and 400-ton silo, respectively. 

The following statements of the cost of the three 
types of silos were prepared by the same writer; com- 
parisons are made with a stone silo of 200 tons capacity, 
costing $500 ; the silo is 14x24 feet inside, and 30 feet 
deep, 22 feet above ground. It is covered on the outside 
with dimension boards, battened, extending up and 
down, and nailed to 2x4 studding, held in place by 
hooked pieces of band irons laid in the wall. 



SILOS. 137 



Rectangular Silo, 200 Tons. 



Foundation, 13.44 perch at $1.20 $16.13 

Studding, 2x12, 28 feet, 8,736 feet at $20 174.72 

Sills, etc., 2x10, 26 feet, 206 feet at $19 4.94 

Sills, etc., 2x10, 16 feet, 426 feet at $14 5.96 

Rafters, etc., 2x4, 20 feet, 400 feet at $16 6.40 

Roof boards, fencing, 450 feet at $15 6.75 

Shingles. 5 M at $3 15-00 

Drop siding, 8 inch, 2,779 feet at $16. 44.46 

Lining, surface fencing, 4,256 feet at $15 63.84 

Tarred paper, 426 lbs. at 2 cents 8.52 

Coal tar, 1 barrel -^-^O 

Painting, 60 cents per square 15-00 

Nails and hinges 10.00 

Cementing bottom 5.00 

Eighteen 3-4 inch bolts, 18 inches long 2.70 

Carpenter labor at $3 per M, and board 41.16 

Total $425.08 



Round Silo, 200 Tons. 

20 feet inside diameter, 30 feet deep. 

Foundation, 7.5 perch at $1.20 $9.00 

Studs 2x4, 14 and 16 feet, 1,491 feet at $14 20.93 

Rafters, 2x4, 12 feet, 208 feet at $14 2.91 

Roof boards, fencing, 500 feet at $15 7.50 

•Shingles, 6 M at $3 18-00 

Siding, rabbeted, 2,660 feet at $23 61.18 

Lining, fencing, ripped, 2,800 feet at $18 50.40 

Tarred paper, 740 lbs. at 2 cents 14.80 

Coal tar, 1 barrel 4.50 

Hardware 6-00 

Painting, 60 cents per square 13.20 

Cementing bottom 5.00 

Carpenter labor at $3 per M, and board 33.17 

Total $246.59 



138 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

"The three silos are outside, and wholly independent 
structures, except the entrance and feeding chute shown 
in Fig. 10, which connects with the barn. This method 
of connection for outside silos, while a little more costly^ 
is, I feel confident, much the best in the long run." 

It may be in order to state, in comparing the figures 
given in the preceding statements with the average data 
for the cost of the different silo types obtained by the 
v/riter, that the round silos in the latter summary were 
built uniformly better than the rectangular wooden 
silos included, and according to modern requirements, 
while many of the latter were old and of a comparatively 
cheap construction, so that the figures cannot be taken 
to represent the relative value of rectangular and round 
silos built equally well. 

The cost of stave silos will of course vary with the 
kind of lumber used, cost of labor, and other expenses, as 
in case of other types of silos. It is evident that stave 
silos can as a rule be built cheaper than other kinds of 
silos, both from the fact that less material is used in 
their construction, and because the labor bill is smaller. 
One of the first stave silos described, built in Ontario, 
Canada, cost $75.00; capacity, 140 tons. Other and 
better built stave silos have been put up for $100 for a 
100-ton silo, and this may be considered an average 
price for such a silo, made of white pine, hemlock or 
any lumber that is cheapest in the particular locality 
where the silo is to be built. If built of Southern cy- 
press and complete with conical roof and doors, the 
price of stave silos will in the North come to about $1.50 
per ton capacity, small silos being a little dearer, and 
larger ones a little cheaper than this average figure. 



CHAPTEE III.— SILAGE. 
Filling the Silo. 

Having built our silo, we proceed to fill it with the 
fodder grown for the i^urpose. Since Indian corn is our 
main silage crop, we shall first consider the siloing of 
corn, and afterwards take up other crops. We saw be- 
fore that corn should be allowed to pass through the 
dough stage before cutting, i. e., when the kernels are 
well dented, or glazed, in case of flint varieties. Where 
very large silos are filled, and in cases of extreme dry 
weather when the corn is fast drying up, it will be 
well to begin filling the silo a little before it has reached 
this stage, as the greater portion of the corn would 
otherwise be apt to be too dry. There is, however, less 
danger in this respect now than formerly, on account 
of our modern deep silos, and because we have found 
that water applied directly to the fodder in the silo 
acts in the same way as water in the fodder, and keeps 
the fermentations in the silo in the right track. 

Cutting the Corn in the Field. — The cutting of 
corn for the silo is usually on small farms done by hand 
by means of a corn knife. Many farmers have been 
using self-raking and binding corn harvesters for this 
purpose, while others report good success with a sled- 
or platform cutter. If the corn stands up well, and is 
not of a very large variety, the end sought may be 
reached in a satisfactory manner by either of these 
methods. If, on the other hand, much of the corn is 

139 



140 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



down, hand cutting is to be preferred. A number of 
different makes of corn harvesters and corn cutters have 
been placed on the market during the past few years; 
it is very likely that hand cutting of fodder corn will be 
largely done away with in years to come, at least on 
large farms; indeed, it looks as if the day of the corn- 




.%^. 







FIG. 57. A PRACTICAL, VERTICAL, CORN BINDER. 

knife was passing away, and as if this implement that 
has figured so long will soon be relegated to obscurity 
with the sickle of our fathers' time. 

Fig. 57 shows one of the latest and most improved 
machines that cuts 'corn and binds it into bundles of a 
convenient size, thus saving considerable of the work 
necessitated by handling loose stalks in the field and at 



FILLING THE SILO. 141 

the cutter. According to the testimony of the farmers 
who have in use the tens of thousands of macliines 
of this kind that have been sokl during the past half a 
dozen years, the corn harvester is a perfect machine for 
its purpose. 

A phatform cutter, which v.as used with great suc- 
cess, is descril)ed by a veteran Wisconsin dairyman, the 
late Mr. Charles R. Beach, in a communication to the 
author : 

"AVe use two wagons, with platforms built upon two 
timbers, eighteen feet long, suspended beneath the 
axles. These platforms are about eighteen inches from 
Ihe ground and are seven feet wide. The cutting-knife 
is fastened upon a small removable platform, two feet 
by about three and one-half feet, v:hich is attached to 
the side of the large platform, and is about six or eight 
inches lower. One row is cut at a time, the knife strik- 
ing the corn at an angle of about forty-five degrees. 
One man kneels on the small platform and takes the 
corn with his arm; two or three men stand upon the 
wagon, and as soon as he has gotten an armful, the 
men, each in turn, take it from him and i)ile it on the 
wagon. If the ro^vs are long enough a load of one and 
one-half to two tons can be cut and loaded on in about 
eight to ten minutes. The small platform is detached 
from the wagon, the load driven to the silo, the i^lat- 
form attached to the other wagon, and another load is 
cut and loaded. Xone of the corn reaches tlie ground; 
no l)ending down to pick up. One team will draw men, 
cutter, and load, and I do not now well see how the 
method could be iini)roved. With a steam engine, a 
large cutter, two teams and wagons, and ten men, we 



FILLING THE SILO. 143 

filled our silo, 23x24x18 feet (190 tons), fast, in less 

than two days. Mr. owned the whole outfit, and 

filled his own and several silos for his neighbors, the 
same gang of men doing the work." 

Professor Georgeson, late of Kansas Experiment 
Station,- has described a one-horse sledge-cutter which 
has given better satisfaction than any fodder-cutter tried 
at that station. It is provided with two knives, which 
are hinged to the body of the sled, and can be folded in 
on the sled when not in use. It has been improved 
and made easier to pull by providing it with four low 
?nd broad cast-iron wheels. It is pulled by a single 
horse and cuts two rows at a time. Two men stand 
upon the cutter, each facing a row ; as the corn is cut 
they gather it into armfuls, which they drop in heaps 
on the ground. A wagon with a low, broad rack fol- 
lows, on which the corn is loaded and hauled to the 

silo. 

Similar corn cutters have been made by various man- 
ufacturers of late years and have proved quite satisfac- 
tory, although they require more hand labor than the 
corn harvesters and do not leave the corn tied up and 
in as convenient shape for loading on the wagons as 

these do. 

A low-down rack for hauling the cut corn to the 
cutter is shown in the accompanying illustration (Fig. 
59). It has been used for some years past at the Wis- 
consin Experiment Station, and is a great convenience 
inhandlingcorn,saving both labor and time. These racks 
not only dispense with a man upon the wagon when 
loading, but they materially lessen the labor of the man 
who takes the corn from the ground, for it is only the 



144 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



top of the load which needs to be raised shoulder-high; 
again^ when it comes to unloading, the man can stand 
on the floor or ground and simply draw the corn toward 
him and lay it upon the table of the cutter, without 
stooping over and without raising the corn up to again 
throw it down. A plank that can easily be hitched on 
behind the truck will prove convenient for loading, so 
that the loader can pick up his armful and, walking up 
the plank, can drop it without much exertion. 




riG. 59. LOW-DOWN BACK FOR HAULING FODDER CORN. 



A very cheap and convenient sled for hauling fodder 
corn from the field has been recommended by Professor 
Hickman of Ohio Experiment Station; it is said to 
answer all purposes if the silo corn is not too far from 
the silo : The sled can be made out of a couple of 2x10 
or 2x12 planks, say twelve feet long. Four 2x4 cross 
pieces, well mortised into the planks, and fastened by 
20-penny nails, will finish the sled, except the trimming 
of the runners so that they will have a well-formed 
curve on the front end. Loose boards thrown upon this 
kind of sled will enable one to haul very easily a ton 
of fodder at a load; and by placing the butts of the 
fodder corn all one way and putting a 3x3 scantling 



FILLING THE SILO. l4o 

under the tops the load can be unloaded when it arrives 
at the cutter by two hands taking each an end of the 
scan^:ling, and raising that side of the load until the 
fodder corn is turned completely over. In hauling the 
fodder corn long distances a low-down rack similar to 
the one shown in Fig. 59 should be used. 

If wilted fodder corn is to be siloed it should be 
shocked in the field to protect" it as much as possible 
from rain before hauling it to the cutter. 

Whole against Cut Silage. — One important mat- 
ter to be decided at this point is whether or not the 
ccrn is to be cut before being filled into the silo. In 
the large majority of cases corn is run through a feed- 
cutter on being siloed. This is, however, not absolutely 
necessary, as it may be siloed whole with perfect suc- 
cess ; in some localities and by some farmers, this prac- 
tice is followed exclusively. The advocates of whole 
silage claim, with a good deal of plausibility, that there 
mil be smaller losses from fermentations with whole 
than with cut silage, and that silos will be less subject 
to decay when corn is siloed whole than the other way. 
Xo direct proof of either of these statements is, how- 
ever, at hand, and the practice followed must be de- 
cided by the greater ease of handling the fodder and 
silage, and the relative economy of one system or the 
other in the opinion of each farmer. 

In experiments with whole and cut corn silage, con- 
ducted at the Massachusetts Experiment Station in 
1884-85, the conclusion was drawn that the silage ob- 
tained from whole plants was in a better state of preser- 
vation than that which had been obtained from the 
same quality of corn previously cut into pieces of from 



146 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

IJ to 1^ inches in length. The mechanical condition 
of the whole corn silage was less satisfactory for feeding 
purposes, so far as an economical consumption of the 
same weight of both is concerned, than that produced 
from corn previously cut. 

The saving of machinery, cutter, and carrier makes an 
important point in favor of the whole silage, especially 
for small farmers, while the greater ease with which the 
cut silage may be placed in the silo as well as fed out, 
is in favor of the cutting of the corn crop. Professor 
Cook, late of Michigan Agricultural College, says on 
this point : "My silo, fifteen feet square and twenty feet 
high, cost less than $130, and my feed-cutter, with an 
eighteen-foot carrier, also costs more than $100. But 
the same tread-power enables me to cut all my dry corn 
stalks and oat straw at a great saving, and to grind all 
my oats and corn at a slight expense, with one of the 
excellent American grinders, while the cutter is also 
used as just indicated. For safety and convenience in 
feeding I prefer to run all the corn through a cutter, 
1 believe that silos will soon be so common that engines 
and cutters will go from farm to farm, as threshers do 
now ; then even the small farmers may cut the material 
for the silo, and yet not need to own the expensive 
machinery. I believe that it will pay even the small 
farmer to own the machinery, if he can purchase with- 
out incurring debt." 

In siloing fodder corn whole, it is well to grow the 
smaller varieties and to plant rather thickly. One suc- 
cessful whole-silage farmer thus uses as much as twenty 
to twenty-four quarts of seed to the acre, which gives a 
stalk of corn nearly every inch in the row, with rows 



FILLING THE SILO. 147 

3^ feet apart. We have seen that a maximum yield of 
food materials per acre can not ordinarily be expected 
from such close planting. Others use only half this 
amount and have equally good, or most likely even bet- 
ter, whole silage. Too close planting is to be avoided, 
both on account of the decreased yield of dry matter 
from the land and the large amount of acid found in 
silage made from very immature corn. A medium- 
thick planting, obtained by using, e. g., ten to twelve 
quarts per acre, is preferable for whole silage, for two 
reasons — the corn may be handled more easily, both in 
filling it into the silo and in feeding it out, and there is 
no waste in feeding, since cattle will eat the slender 
stalks and leave nothing of the silage. 

In siloing corn whole it is put into the silo in a 
systematic manner; beginning with a small armful in 
one corner of the silo, bundles of the same size are 
placed along the wall in a tier; then another tier is 
formed close up to the first one, being laid in the 
opposite direction, and successive tiers are formed in 
the same way until the whole bottom of the silo is cov- 
ered. When the first layer has been formed, a second 
one is put on top of it, starting with bundles where the 
first layer was finished, and completing it where the 
first layer was begun ; in the same way layer after layer 
is put on until the silo is full. Every time a corner is 
reached a number of stalks are bent in the middle and 
pressed down solidly in the corner, so as to leave no 
empty space. When the silage is to be fed out, the silo 
is emptied from the top in e^^actly the opposite direction 
from that in which it was filled; the different bundles 
and tiers will then separate from the rest of the silage 



148 ~ MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

without much trouble, although at best the process of 
feeding out whole silage must be considered back-aching 
work. 

Farmers who can not very well afford to buy the 
machinery necessary for cutting corn for the silo should 
make whole silage until they find themselves able to 
invest in a cutter, if they should prefer a change, as they 
will be likely to. While siloing whole corn may not be 
any saving in the end, the first cost of making silage 
will be greatly lessened by following this method. Bet- 
ter whole silage than none at all ; better cut silage than 
whole, in the majority of cases, at least. 

SiLOiXG Corn ''Ears and All.'' — It is the practice 
of a great many farmers to silo the whole corn plant 
without previously husking it. If the ear corn is not 
needed for hogs and horses, or for seed purposes, this 
practice is in the line of economy, as it saves the ex- 
pense of husking, cribbing, shelling, and grinding the 
ear corn. The possible loss of food materials sustained 
in siloing the ear corn speaks against the practice, but 
this is, as we shall see, very small, and more than coun- 
terbalanced by the advantages gained by this method of 
procedure. In proof of this statement it may be well 
to give here briefly the results of a somewhat extended 
feeding trial with milch cows, conducted by the author 
in 1891, at the Wisconsin Experiment Station. 

Corresponding rows of a large corn field were siloed, 
"ears and all" and without ears, the ears belonging to 
the latter lot being carefully saved and air-dried. The 
total yield of silage with ears in it (whole-corn silage) 
was 56,459 pounds; of silage without ears (stover 
silage), 34,496 pounds, and of ear corn, 10,511 pounds. 



FILLING THE SILO. 149 

The dry matter content of the lots obtained by the two 
methods of treatment was, in whole corn silage, 19,950 
pounds ; in stover silage 9,484 pounds, and in ear corn 
9,132 pounds, or 18,606 pounds of dry matter in the 
stover silage and ear corn combined. This shows a loss 
of 1,344 pounds of dry matter, or nearly 7 per cent, sus- 
tained by handling the fodder and ear corn separately 
instead of siloing the corn "ears and all.'' 

In feeding the two kinds of silage against each other, 
adding the dry ear corn to the stover silage, it was found 
that seventeen tons of whole-corn silage fed to sixteen 
cows produced somewhat better results than fourteen 
tons of stover silage, and more than two tons of dry ear 
corn, both kinds of silage having been supplemented by 
the same quantities of hay and grain feed. The yield 
of milk from the cows was 4 per cent higher on the 
whole-corn silage ration than on the stover silage ration, 
and the yield of fat was 6.9 per cent higher on the same 
ration. It would seem then that the cheapest and best 
way of preserving the corn crop for feeding purposes, at 
least in case of milch cows, is to fill it directly into the 
silo; the greater portion of the corn may be cut and 
siloed when the corn is in the roasting stage, and the 
corn plat which is to furnish ear corn may be left in 
the field until the corn is fully matured, when it may 
be husked, and the stalks and leaves may be filled into 
the silo on top of the corn siloed "ears and all." This 
will then need some heavy weighting or one or two 
applications of water on top of the corn, to insure a 
good quality of silage from the rather dry stalks. (See 
page 157.) 

An experiment similar to the preceding one, con- 



150 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

diictea at the Vermont Experiment Station, gave results 
going in the same direction. The product from six acres 
of land was fed to milch cows; the results showed that 
corn siloed "ears and all" produced 3.3 per cent better 
results than siloed stalks and ground ear corn from 
the same; when the yield of milk and fat per acre of 
corn was considered in either case, the whole corn silage 
from an acre of land, fed with 4,313 pounds of clover 
rowen and 2,157 pounds grain, produced 8,113 pounds 
of milk and 333 pounds of fat; while in case of the 
stover silage fed with ground ears and the same quan- 
tity of other feed, 6,399 joounds of milk and 264 pounds 
of fat were produced; that is, it would have taken the 
product from 1.26 acres to give an equal amount of milk 
and milk products in the latter case as was produced 
by the silage from whole corn plant. This shows 
that husking, shelling, and grinding the corn, processes 
that may cost more than a quarter of the market value 
of the meal, are labor and expense more than wasted, 
since the cows did better on the corn siloed "ears and 
all" than on that siloed after the ears were picked off 
and fed ground with it. 

The Filling Process. — If the corn is to be cut be- 
fore being filled into the silo, it is unloaded on the 
table of the fodder-cutter and run through the cutter, 
after which the carrier elevates it to the silo window 
and delivers it into the silo. The length of cutting 
practiced differs somewhat with different farmers, and 
according to variety of corn to be siloed. The general 
practice is to cut the corn in one-half to one-inch 
lengths; a few cut in two-inch. lengths. The corn will 
pack better in the silo the finer it is cut, and cattle will 



FILLING THE SILO. 151 

eat the larger varieties cleaner if cut into inch lengths 
or less. On the other hand, it is possible that fine cut- 
ting-implies larger losses through fermentations in the 
silo; fine cut silage may, furthermore, not keep as long 
as silage cut longer after having been taken out of the 
silo. There is, however, not sufficient experimental 
evidence at hand to establish either of these poinds; 
the majority of farmers filling silos, at any rate, practice 
cutting corn fine for the silo. 

The carrier should deliver the corn as nearly in the 
middle of the silo as possible; by means of a chute at- 
tached to the carrier, the cut corn may be delivered to 
any part of the silo desired, and the labor of distributing 
and leveling the corn thus facilitated. If the corn is 
siloed "ears and all," it is necessary to keep a man or a 
boy in the silo while it is being filled, to level the sur- 
face and tramp down the sides and corners; if left to 
itself, the heavier pieces of ears will be thrown farthest 
away and the light leaves and tops will all come nearest 
the discharge ; as a result, the corn will not settle evenly, 
and the feeding value of different layers of silage will 
differ greatly. To assist in the distribution of the corn 
it is recommended to hang a pyramidal box in front and 
below the top of the carrier; this may be made al)out 
three feet square at the base and tapering to a point, at 
which a rope is attached for hanging to rafters. The 
descending mass of cut corn will strike the top of the 
box and be divided so as to distribute to all parts of 
the silo. Another simple device is to place a board 
vertically, or nearly so, in front of the top of the carrier, 
against which the cut corn will strike; or to tie a bag 
open at the bottom over the top of the carrier. 



152 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

Powers and Cutters for Silo Filling. 

The cutter used in filling the silo should have ample 
capacity to give satisfaction; a rather large cutter is 
therefore better than a cutter that is barely large enough. 
The size required depends on the rapidity with which it 
is desired to fill the silo and on the power at hand. Where 
a steam engine is available it is the cheapest power for 
filling a large silo, as the work can then be finished in 
a few days. For small farms and silos, engines come too 
high, however, and here a two- or three-horse tread 
will prove most economical. According to King, a three- 
horse tread will give about twice the power of a two- 
horse tread, and will nicely manage a No. 4 cutter, 
elevating silage 24 feet. During the past years large 
self-feeding cutters have been placed on the market, 
which will take whole bundles of corn as delivered by the 
corn harvester and as taken off the wagon, there being 
no need of cutting bands and feeding the corn a few 
stalks at a time. With one of these cutters as much 
corn can be cut as 3 or 4 teams can haul, if the corn 
field is at some distance from the silo. The machines 
also have a hopper-box under the carrier which mixes 
the grain and fodder and insures an even distribution of 
these in the silo at much less labor than was formerly 
required. 

Pnettttiatic Elevators. 

A new method of elevating the fodder in filling 
silos ~ has been introduced by the use of pneumatic 
elevators (^^lower silage elevators," " 's Hum- 
mer," etc.) which practically fans or blows the cut 



FILLING THE SILO. 153 

fodder into the silo through a continuous pipe or spout. 
This machine therefore takes the place of an ordinary 
carrier elevator; they have been used in some sections 
of the United States and Canada, but so far only to a 
limited extent. The capacity of the machines may reach 
12 tons an hour. Where steam power is available for 
cutting, there seems to be no difficulty in elevating the 
cut fodder 30 to 40 feet with these elevators when a 12- 
horse power engine is used. The pneumatic elevators 
have the advantage of ordinary carriers in some respects, 
but they require considerable power, and but limited 
practical experience as to their workings is as yet at 
hand. 

Fast or Slow Fillijs^g. — The original practice in 
filling silos was to fill as rapidly as the conditions pres- 
ent would possibly admit; other outdoor farm work 
was therefore dropped at the time of silo filling, and all 
energies concentrated on completing this Job. It w^as, 
however, found later on, perhaps by accident, that no 
harm will result if the filling be interrupted for some 
time, and the practice of slow filling gradually devel- 
oped. The theory of the practice was worked out by 
the late Prof. M. Miles of Michigan, and he was one 
of the early champions of the slow-filling process in this 
country. The advantage claimed for the slow filling 
was, besides appreciably facilitating the work of filling 
the silo, the superior quality of the silage produced, 
viz., so-called sweet silage, We shall be able to discuss 
this subject more fully when we have considered the 
chemical composition of silage, and the changes occur- 
ring in the silo. (See page 170.) It will only be neces- 
sary here to state, concerning the slow or rapid filling 



154 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

of silos, that the silage produced by either method will 
be good, provided the corn is not too immature. It is, 
therefore, mainly a matter of convenience, which meth- 
od proves preferable. Generally speaking, rapid filling 
has the advantage in point of economy, both of labor and 
of food materials. The fermentations are left to proceed 
farther in case of slow filling than when the silo is filled 
rapidly, being greatly aided by the oxygen of the air, 
which then has better access to the separate layers ; this 
is plainly shown by the higher temperature reached in 
slowly filled silos. The rise in the temperature is due 
to the activity of bacteria, and a high temperature, 
therefore, means greater losses of food constituents. 
More silage can be obtained in the same silo by slow 
than by rapid filling, as the fodder will settle more in 
the former case than when the silo is filled at once, 
and refilled after a few days. 

As there may be some farmers who still hold slow 
filling to be preferable, we give the directions for filling 
the silo in this way : When enough corn has been added 
to fill three to six feet of the silo, the filling is discon- 
tinued and the mass allowed to heat up to 120° to 140° 
Fahrenheit. This may take a day or two; the filling 
is then continued, and another layer of three feet or 
more filled in, which is left to heat as before. This 
method of intermittent filling is continued until the 
silo is full. 

Danger from Carbonic- Acid Poisoning in Silos. 

As soon as the corn in the silo begins to heat, carbonic- 
acid gas is evolved, and if the silo is shut up tight, the 
gas will gradually accumulate directly above the fodder, 



FILLING THE SILO. 155 

since it is heavier than air and does not mix with it 
under the conditions given. If a man or an animal 
goes /lown into this atmosphere, there is great danger 
of asphyxiation, as is the case under similar conditions 
in a deep cistern or well. Poisoning cases from this 
cause have occurred in filling silos where the filling 
has been interrupted for one or more days, the car- 
bonic acid generated in the meantime having replaced 
the layer of air immediately above the corn, and men 
who have gone into the silo to tramp down the cut corn 
have been asphyxiated. If the doors above the siloed 
mass are left open when the filling is stopped, or at 
least the first door above the surface of the corn, and 
the silo thus ventilated, carbonic-acid poisoning cannot 
take place, since the gas will then slowly diffuse into 
the air. It is therefore most important in building a 
silo to place the doors not too far apart, and in filling it 
to leave the doors open when the filling is discontinued, 
and exercise care about going into the silo when the fod- 
der has been settling for a time and become heated. Car- 
bonic acid being without odor or color, to all appear- 
ances like ordinary air, it cannot be directly observed, 
but may be readily detected by means of a lighted lan- 
tern or candle. If the light goes out when lowered into 
the silo, there is an accumulation of carbonic acid in it, 
and a person should open feed doors and fan the air in 
the silo before going down into it. 

After the silage is made and the temperature in the 
silo has gone down considerably, there is no further 
evolution of carbonic acid, and therefore no danger in 
entering the silo even if this has been shut up tight. 
The maximum evolution of carbonic acid, and conse- 



156 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

qiiently the greatest danger of carbonic-acid poisoning, 
comes during or directly after the filling of the silo. 

Covering the Siloed Fodder. — A great many de- 
vices for covering the siloed fodder have been recom- 
mended and tried, with varying success. The original 
method was to put boards on top of the fodder and to 
weight them heavily by means of a foot layer of earth 
or sand, or with stone. The weighting having later on 
been done away with, lighter material, as straw, marsh 
hay, sawdust, etc., was substituted for the stone or 
sand. Building paper was often placed over the fodder, 
and boards on top of the paper. There is no special 
advantage derived from the use of building paper, and it 
is now rarely used. Many farmers run some corn 
stalks or green husked fodder through the cutter 
after the fodder is all in. In the South, cotton seed 
hulls are easily obtained and form a most efficient and 
cheap cover. 

None of these materials or any other recommended 
for the purpose can perfectly preserve the uppermost 
layer of silage, as far as my experience goes, some six 
to eight inches of the top layer being usually spoilt. 
Occasionally this spoilt silage may not be so bad but 
that cattle or hogs will eat it up nearly clean, but it 
is at best very poor food and should not be used by any 
farmer who cares for the quality of his products. The 
wet or green materials are better for cover than dry 
substances, since they prevent evaporation of water 
from the top layer; when this is dry, air will be ad- 
mitted to the fodder below, thus making it possible for 
putrefactive bacteria and molds to continue the de- 



FILLING THE SILO. 157 

structive work begun by the fermentation bacteria, and 
causing more of the silage to spoil. 

During the past couple of years the practice of apply- 
ing water to the fodder in the silo has been followed 
in a large number of cases. The surface is tramped 
thoroughly and a considerable amount of water added. 
In applying the method at the Wisconsin Experiment 
Station, Professor King, a few days after the completion 
of the filling of the silo, added water to the fodder corn 
at the rate of about ten pounds per square foot of sur- 
face, repeating the same process about ten days after- 
wards. By this method a sticky, almost impervious layer 
of rotten silage, a couple of inches thick, will form on 
the top, which will prevent evaporation of water from 
the corn below, and will preserve all but a few inches 
of the top. The method seems to have worked very sat- 
isfactorily, and can be recommended in cases where 
the corn or clover goes into the silo in a rather dry condi- 
tion, on account of drought or extreme hot weather, 
so as not to pack sufficiently by its own weight. While 
weighting of the siloed fodder has long since been done 
away with, it may still prove advantageous to resort 
to it where very dry fodder is siloed, or in case of shal- 
low silos. Under ordinary conditions neither weighting 
nor applications of water should be necessary. 

Xone of the different methods given in the preceding 
will preserve all of the silage intact, and the author 
knows of only one way in which this can be accom- 
plished, viz. : by beginning to feed the silage within a 
few days after the silo has been filled. This method is 
now practiced by many farmers, especially dairymen, 
who in this manner supplement scant fall pastures. 



158 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

By beginning to feed at once from the silo, the siloing 
system is brought to perfection, provided the silo struc- 
ture is air-tight and constructed so as to admit of no 
unnecessary losses of nutrients. Under these conditions 
there is a very considerable- saving of food materials 
over silage made in poorly-constructed silos, or over 
field-cured shocked fodder corn, as we shall presently 
see. 

Before leaving the subject of filling and covering the 
silo it may be of interest to give an extract of an address 
by the well-known Ohio siloist, Mr. John Gould, in re- 
gard to these points, delivered in 1895 : "I have flung 
aside all machinery for cutting the standing corn, and 
now have the crop hand-cut. I get it cut for about 80 
cents an acre and the board of one man. A corn har- 
vester costs $130, and will not last more than eight years, 
and $18 interest on money and wear of the machine 
yearly will cut my corn by hand twice over each year. 
A man cutting by hand can take three rows at a time, 
and a good man can cut three acres a day if he works 
alone. ISTever allow corn when cut to drop into the 
furrows. Let it be put crosswise of the rows, so that 
the man who comes along to take it up can do so with- 
out using his finger nails for a rake. In picking up 
the corn we do not use a low wagon, but an ordinary 
high one, and one man loads and unloads his own 
wagon. We have four men in the field — the cutter, 
a loader and two 'pick-me-ups.' A great deal depends 
upon careful loading. Get the driver to load his wagon 
seven bundles high, and keep it there until the wagon 
is loaded. Formerly in operating the cutting machine 
we had two men to feed it and one man to boss the job. 



FILLING THE SILO. 159 

Now we have one man to feed the machine and no one 
to boss him. He must simply keep feeding the machine 
or get buried. 

"We used to put two men in the silo when filling; 
now we find that one man can attend to that part of the 
work, look after the engine, and do odd jobs. A load of 
corn weighs more than a man, and that is why we do 
not do any tramping now. In filling a silo you should 
always aim to keep the highest portion near the walls. 
We place a sort of table or small platform over the 
center of the silo, run the ensilage on to it, making a 
pyramid ; then the corn must fall toward the walls, and 
not to the center. Xow and then it may take five min- 
utes' work with the fork to make things even and level 
up. Do not cover your silo. Ten pails of water evenly 
distributed over the top, when the corn is all in and the 
top well tramped, is best of all. Then come away and 
put your trust in Providence. The moisture on top of 
the silo will quickly develop a fine mold, which is better 
than anything else by way of preserving that which is 
beneath. You will lose only about ten bushels of ensi- 
lage by the molding, and that costs less than would 
a day's work making an artificial covering." 

The change that has taken place in the methods of 
silo filling during late years in this country has, how- 
ever, modified the views of the well known siloist quoted 
in the preceding. In 1899, he writes in the Rural New 
Yorker: "The filling of silos about here (Northwestern 
Ohio) is taking on a radical change, and is being corre- 
spondingly cheapened; some farmers put it, by 33 per 
cent. The low-down corn harvesters have superseded 
hand cutting entirely ; the gavels are tied in small com- 
11 



160 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

pass^ and are easily picked up and put on wagons, two 
men easily doing the work of three with untied ones." 
The greater efficiency of the modern silage cutters, with 
self-feeding arrangement, is also commented on. 

"Dry" Silage. 

The objection has been raised that we handle an 
unnecessarily large quantity of water in siloing green 
fodder corn, nearly three-fourths of the crop being made 
up of water, and it has been argued that some of this 
amount might advantageously be removed before plac- 
ing it in the silo, by partially wilting or curing the 
fodder. The efforts to silo such wilted fodder have, 
however, often been unsuccessful, because of insufficient 
pressure in the silo; the wilted fodder will not pack 
sufficiently by its own weight to exclude the air, and 
as a result white, moldy spots are apt to appear in the 
silage, destroying large amounts of the contents. This 
may possibly be avoided in deep silos by weighting the 
fodder or by applying a liberal quantity of water to the 
well-tramped surface of the fodder corn. An experi- 
ment in siloing wilted fodder, made at Wisconsin Ex- 
periment Station in 1887, showed great losses of mate- 
rials, more than half of the fodder being destroyed 
during the siloing process. The silage was dry and 
very light, with an odor similar to that of drying tobacco 
leaves. Chemical analyses made by the author showed 
the composition of the silage and the corresponding 
partly-cured fodder corn (yellow dent) to be as folloAvs: 



SILAGE. 



161 



Percentage Composition op " Dry " Silage and Corre- 
sponding Partly Cured Fodder Corn. 



Dry Silage 

Partly Cured Fodder 
Corn 



30.76 
34.77 



4.38 
3.53 



'O "53 

d o 



6.18 
4.87 






21.48 
33.37 



35.84 
33.51 






«« 



1.36 
.96 



-<1 



.14 



« 



Scattered reports of success in siloing wilted corn fod- 
der are at hand. Professor Sanborn, late director of 
Utah Experiment Station, reports very favorable re- 
sults from silage prepared from such fodder. He says : 
"In seventeen years' experimental work in animal nutri- 
tion, during every year of which there has been some 
feeding trial or trials with fodder corn or corn fodder, 
and during the time several trials with methods of pre- 
serving the corn plant, I have never found a method of 
preserving this plant that has given so much satisfaction. 
Not the slightest change of the plant in Silo 3 was 
visible to the eye except that it was softer or more pli- 
able. It was eaten better than I have ever known corn 
fodder to be eaten; fully as well as hay is usually eaten. 
I believe that no appreciable loss occurred under this 
system of storage, and I am sure that it is far less than 
by the regular silo system of green storage.'' 

Mr. John Gould says in regard to dry silage : "While 
those who have tried this dry fodder silage are satisfied 
with it, none claim it as superior to putting up the 
green fodder. It is far more difficult to cut. The silo 
cannot restore to the dry fodder what it has lost, nor 
its original digestibility, but it does make it more pal- 
atable and easier fed, creating a large saving by having 



162 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

the coarser parts consumed. Instead of cutting fodder 
each day for the stock, the fodder is cut at one job and 
time economized. The chief point is, that it is possible 
by this process to save a big surplus corn crop, which 
otherwise would rapidly deteriorate." 

Shredded Silage. 

The practice of running the green fodder through a 
fodder shredder as it goes into the silo has become 
somewhat general in certain sections in the East, and 
very enthusiastic reports have been published as to the 
value of the silage thus obtained. The writer has not 
had any personal experience with the making or the 
feeding of such shredded silage, but from the testimony 
of disinterested and discerning parties who have had 
such experience the practice seems well worthy of further 
trial. The advantages claimed for shredded silage 
over silage from corn nun through a feed cutter are, 
first, closer packing in the silo, about 20 per cent more 
going into the silo in case of shredded silage; second, 
a more fibrous texture of the silage, which enables it 
to be easily handled with a pitchfork, and third, on 
account of the finely comminuted butts and stalks, it will 
not make the mouths of cattle sore and all will be eaten 
up clean. As against these advantages we have the re- 
quirement for greater power in shredding fodder, the 
amount of which has not been determined. 

The Director of Farmers' Institutes for the State of 
New York, Mr. F. E. Dawley, in recent letters to the 
writer, speaks as follows concerning shredded silage: 
"I am not apt to become very enthusiastic over any 
agricultural implement which I use, but I think the 



SILAGE 163 

nearest I have ever come to it is over the shredder. I 
have had ten years' experience with silage, and two with 
the sh,redder, so I feel that I know a little something 
about the keeping qualities of corn silage. I am in- 
clined to think that the idea which is probably correct 
scientifically, that the more you break down the tissues 
of the corn plant, thus exposing a large surface to the 
air, the more sour the silage will be, is generally also 
correct in practice. But I find by these two seasons' 
experience that the corn which is cut off finely by the 
shredder will pack in the silo very much more com- 
pactly, and in these two instances at least, the silage has 
been the sweetest we ever had. . . . The material packs 
more closely than even the shortest cut silage that I have 
ever put in, no matter how finely it was cut. The ears 
are all torn to pieces so that the grain is more thor- 
oughly distributed through the mass than it is in cut- 
ting, and as the stalk is all torn to pieces, this and the 
leaves are more thoroughly intermingled. I have 
weighed corn into my silo and know from actual expe- 
rience that I got practically one-fifth more corn in when 
shredded than when cut. ... So far as the results in 
feeding are concerned I can see no particular difference, 
the advantage of shredding being in the finer cutting of 
the corn, compactness of the material in the silo, and 
the results in keeping which one would naturally expect 
from this condition. . . . The only disadvantage that 
I have ever noted is that a little more power is re- 
quired. ... As an indication of the favor with which 
shredded sila2:e is received here I can say to you that 
from the small beginning which I made two years ago, 
three or four shredders have been purchased in this sec- 



164 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

tion^ and if I wished to send my machine out with men 
to run it, I believe that nine-tenths of the silos in this 
community would be filled with shredded silage." 

The corn is cut for shredded silage at the same time 
as when cut by square-cutting machines, viz., when it is 
beginning to glaze or dent. It is well to cut the corn 
the day before it is to be shredded so that it is slightly 
withered. The shredded mass is very carefully trodden 
doAvn in the silo, and the filling continued till the silo 
is full ; after the mass has settled for a couple of days, 
the silo is again filled to the top. 

No accurate information is at hand as to the differ- 
ence in the power required for shredding and for cut- 
ting, say 100 tons of fodder corn. Nor have the losses of 
nutrients in the silo been determined in case of shred- 
ded silage, or the comparative value of the two kinds of 
silage for the feeding of farm animals. Judging from 
the practical testimony at hand the method of making 
shredded silage is well worth looking into. Machines 
of great capacity are now on the market, shredding 12- 
15 tons of fodder per hour. In the better forms of 
shredders, the feed rolls are speeded at about 160 revolu- 
tions per minute, while the shredder head rotates at the 
rate of 1,500-1,600 revolutions. The manufacturers 
state that it requires 12 to 15 horse power to run the ma- 
chine. 

Clover Silage. 

Green clover may be siloed whole or cut; when the 
former method is followed, it should be put into the silo 
in a systematic manner, in a similar way as explained in 
case of whole corn silage (p. 147). The silo may be filled 



SILAGE. 165 

by means of a hay fork, or by hand ; the hay fork makes 
harder work of the feeding out of the silage, so that 
generally it is preferable to fill by hand. Since whole 
clover does not pack very solidly, most farmers either fill 
the lower half of the silo with whole clover, putting 
clover cut in two-inch lengths in the upper half, or cut 
all the clover put into the silo. The arguments for and 
against whole clover silage are the same as in case of 
whole corn, although whole clover silage is more easily 
handled than whole corn silage. The clover should not 
be left to wilt between cutting and siloing, and the silo 
should be filled rapidly, so as to cause no unnecessary 
losses by fermentations. 

The different species of clover will prove satisfactory 
silo crops ; ordinary red or medium clover is most used 
in Northwestern States, along with mammoth clover; 
the latter matures later than medium or red clover, and 
may therefore be siloed later than these. Alfalfa or 
lucern is, as previously stated, often siloed in the West. 
Under the conditions present there it will generally 
produce much larger yields than corn, and, preserved 
in a silo, will furnish a large supply of most valuable 
feed. Professor Neale and others recommend the use of 
scarlet clover for summer silage, for Delaware and 
States under similar climatic conditions. 

By filling clover into the silo at midsummer, or before, 
space is utilized that would otherwise be empty; the 
silage will furthermore be available for feeding in the 
latter part of the summer and during the fall, when the 
pastures are apt to run short. This makes it possible 
to keep a larger number of stock on the farm than can 
be the case if pastures alone are to be relied upon, and 



166 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

thus greatly facilitates intensive farming. Now that 
stave silos of any size may be easily and cheaply put up, 
it will be found very convenient, at least on dairy farms, 
to keep a small separate silo for making clover silage 
that may be fed out during the summer, or at any time 
simultaneously with the feeding of the corn silage. 
This extra silo may also be used for the siloing of odd 
lots of forage that may happen to be available (see p. 
35). It is a good plan in siloing clover or other compar- 
atively light crops in rather small silos, to put a layer of 
corn on top that will weight down the mass below and 
secure a more thorough packing and thereby also a 
better quality of silage. 

In several instances where there has still been a sup- 
ply of clover silage in the silo, green corn has been filled 
in on top of the clover, and the latter has been sealed and 
thus preserved for a number of years. A sample of two- 
year-old clover silage which the author saw during the 
past season was perfectly preserved in the manner given, 
and, aside from being somewhat drier than ordinary 
clover silage (possibly due to exposure during trans- 
portation), it looked like first-class silage, of a uniform 
brown color, and of a sweet, aromatic odor. I may 
mention in this connection that corn silage will also 
keep perhaps indefinitely when left u?idisturbed in the 
silo. At the larafe Havemeyer dairy farm at Mahwah, 
N. J., there are twenty-four silos, ranging in capacity 
from fifty to seventy-five tons each; about 2,000 tons 
of corn silage are fed out each year and the practice has 
been to keep the silage for two years before feeding; 
I am informed by the manager that the best silage he 
ever had was seven years old. While it is difficult to see 



SILAGE. 167 

the advantages of this system, it shows that corn silage, 
once settled and left "sealed up," will keep for a series 
of years without suffering noticeable deterioration. 

Freezing of Silage. 

Freezing of silage has sometimes been a source of 
annoyance and loss to farmers in Northern States, and 
in the future, with the progress of the stave silo, we 
shall most likely hear more about frozen silage than we 
have in the past. As stated in the discussion of the stave 
silo, however, the freezing of silage must be considered 
an inconvenience rather than a positive detriment; 
when the silage is thawed out it is eaten with the same 
relish by stock as is silage that has never been frozen, 
and apparently with equally good results. If frozen 
silage is not fed out directly after thawed it will spoil 
and soon become unfit to be used for cattle food ; thawed 
silage will spoil much sooner than ordinary silage that 
has not been frozen and thawed out. A feeding experi- 
ment conducted by Alvord at Houghton Farm with 
young cattle failed to give any evidence that silage 
which had been frozen and slowly thawed out, was less 
palatable or nutritious than silage of the same kind 
which had been kept free from frost. 

The difficulty of the freezing of silage may be avoided 
by checking the ventilation in the silo and by leaving 
the door to the silo carefully closed in very cold weather. 
If the top layer of silage freezes, some of the warm 
silage may be mixed with the frozen silage an hour or 
so before feeding time, and all the silage will then be 
found in good condition when fed out. Professor Cook 



168 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

recommends keeping a layer of straw as a cover over 
the silage; this will prevent it from freezing, and may 
easily be cleared off when silage is to be taken out. 

Cost of Silage. 

Corn silage will generally cost $1 to $1.50 per ton, 
including cost of seed, preparation of land, interest on 
same, cultivation of corn, cutting, filling into the silo 
and ready for use. The cost will vary according to local 
conditions, yield, price of land and labor, facilities for 
work, etc. Professor King found that the average 
cost of cutting and putting corn into the silo on a num- 
ber of Wisconsin farms was 58.8 cents per ton, when it 
was put in cut ; adding to this amount the interest and 
taxes on the silo investment per ton and 2 per cent for 
insurance and maintenance, he finds that the cost of 
harvesting and feeding a ton of silage amounts to 73.2 
cents. Various American experiment station men have 
given the cost per ton of the silage as put into the silo. 
Professor Henry, in a trial at the Wisconsin Experiment 
Station, put thirty-one tons into the silo at a net cost 
of 89 cents a ton. The late Professor Porter found the 
cost of one ton of silage to be 88 cents, according to 
Minnesota prices. Professor Whitcher gives $1.62 as the 
cost per ton in New Hampshire; this sum includes 55 
cents paid for fertilizers and manure, an item consid- 
erably smaller for Western farmers. Professor Plumb 
of the Indiana (Purdue) Experiment Station states that 
"estimating on the cost of plowing, harrowing, plant- 
ing, seed, manure, interest and taxes, cultivating, cut- 
ting and hauling from field, and placing in silo," a 
ton of silage will cost about $1.50. Dr. Goessmann 



SII.AGE. 169 

obtained the same figure in siloing fodder corn at tlie 
Massaclmsetts Experiment Station. 

Clover silage will usually cost less than corn silage 
on account of the smaller expense of growing the crop. 
The cost may be estimated at about $1 a ton. (See 
page 28.) 

The yields of silage crops are of direct importance in 
determining the cost of the silage. Corn of Northern 
flint or dent varieties will seldom yield over eighteen 
tons to the measured acre, and yields over twelve tons 
may be considered satisfactory; fifteen tons will be 
counted a good crop by most farmers. The large 
Southern varieties, on the other hand, will yield to- 
ward twenty or more tons of green fodder per acre, 
ordinarily containing, as we have seen, somewhat larger 
quantities of dry matter than yielded by Northern 
smaller varieties under similar conditions. Green 
clover will yield toward fifteen tons per acre, twelve tons 
being a good yield. 

Chemical Cotnpositioii of Silage. 

The chemical composition of silage will of course 
depend on the character of the siloed fodder and on the 
intensity of the fermentations occurring in the silo. The 
main components affected by the siloing process are 
starch and sugar (non-nitrogenous matter) and the ni- 
trogenous bodies ; carbonic acid, water, and organic acids 
are formed from the former, and from the latter, de- 
composition products of simpler constitution than the 
flesh-forming substances proper, the so-called amides. 
The percentage composition of silage will, as a result, 
differ somewhat from that of the siloed fodder. The 



170 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



following sets of analyses made by the author will illus- 
trate the changes in the chemical composition of fodder 
corn before and after the siloing period. 

Chemical Composition of Green and of Siloed Fodder 
Corn, in Per Cent. 





Yellow Dent Corn. 


Soiithern Ensilage Corn 
(B. &W.) 




a 

o 


'6 


Composi- 
tion of 
Dry 

Matter. 


i 

o 


o 


Composi- 
tion of 
Dry 
Matter. 




Green 


Si- 
loed. 


Green 


Si- 
loed. 


Water.. 


71.00 
2.22 
2.49 
7 82 

15.98 
.49 


70 62 
2 59 
2.70 
9.68 

13.69 
.72 






82.30 
1.59 
1.81 
6.80 
7.22 
.28 


82.67 
1.83 
1.73 
6.89 
6.23 
.65 






Mineral Matter 

Crude Protein 


7.65 

8.59 

26 96 

55.12 

1.68 


8.82 

9.17 

32 94 

46.63 

2 44 


9 00 
10 22 
38.43 
40.75 

1.60 


10.58 
9 95 


Crude Fiber 


39.73 


Starcli, Sugar, etc 

Ether Extract 


33.00 
3 74 






Lactic Acid 


100 00 


100.00 

.40 

.08 


100 00 

i's: 

.:31 
22.4 


100.00 

"l.'47 
.55 

37.4 


100.00 



100.00 

.85 
.31 


100.00 


100.00 


Acetic Acid 








Total Nitrogen 




1.64 

.55 

33.8 


1.59 


Amide Nitrogen 






.68 


Per Cent in Amide 
Form 







42.5 



Eelation of Moisture and Acidity in Silage. — 
Silage will contain varying quantities of free organic 
acids formed during the siloing period, mainly lactic, 
acetic, and butyric acids. The amounts of acid in the 
silage will depend largely upon the water content of the 
siloed fodder, or, more correctly speaking, upon the 
intensity of the fermentation processes taking place in 
the silo, one important factor of which is the percentage 
of water in the fodder. I have prepared the following 
table showing the relation of the water in the siloed 
fodder, the temperature in the silo, and the acidity of 



SILAGE. 



171 



the silage. The analyses and observations were taken Ijy 
the author in silo experiments conducted at Wisconsin 
Experiment Station during 1887. Six one-inch gas pipes 
were placed in each of the six experimental silos; one 
set of three pipes, which went dow^n, respectively, to 
within three, six, and nine feet from the bottom of the 
silo, was placed in the middle of the silo, and a similar 
set within two feet from one of the outside walls; ob- 
servations of thermometers kept at the bottom of the 
closed pipes were taken three times a day during the 
first couple of weeks and later on twice or once a day. 
Only the maximum temperatures observed in the three 
silos are here given. 

Relation op Water Content of Fodder, Acidity op 
Silage, and Temperature in Silo. 



Vabibtt op Foddeb Corn. 







^ 


o 


a 


•^ 








a . 






K <u 


'^ 


2 


•^-a 


o 






<6 


<6 


5^ 


.Si^" 


Bf 




Is 


g'tZ 


^ 


^ 


< 




Per ct. 


Per ct. 


77.23 


1.10 


.21 


71.00 


.40 


.08 


34.77 


.14 




82.30 


.85 


.31 


82.72 


.36 


.40 


66.40 


.82 


.16 


65.65 


.80 


08 


61.89 


.65 


.03 



a 

H . 

. o 

c8a2 



Stowell's Evergreen sweet corD 
Pride of the North, yellow 

dent corn 

Same, partially cured 

B. (Sj W. ensilage corn 

Same, siloed wliole 

StoweH's Evergreen sweet corn 
B. & W. ensilage and yellow 

flint corn, mixed 

Clover silage 



o p 

125.6 

120.0 
153.0 
129.5 

126 is 

122.0 



We notice that, as a general rule, the more water in 
the fodder, the higher the acidity of the silage, and the 
lower the temperature. In case of the dry silage only a 



172 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



very slight acidity was fonnd^ and the temperature in 
the silo went up to 153° F. A high temperature, as 
we have seen, means a great loss of nutritive materials, 
and large losses have usually also been observed where 
the conditions favoring high temperatures have been 
present. The following analyses, made at Michigan 
Agricultural College, plainly show the relation of water 
content of siloed fodder, and acidity of silage. Differ- 
ent lots of corn were siloed from the time of tasseling 
till the ears were glazed. 



Relation op Water Content to Acidity. - 



Date op Cutting. 



Water content of corn , 
per cent 

Acidity (calc. as acetic 
acid), percent 






90.00 
1.26 






87.30 
.84 






84.40 
.76 






83.00 

.72 



78.60 

.72 



75.73 

.72 



70.10 
.70 



The influence of the percentage of water in the siloed 
fodder and of methods of filling the silo is well illus- 
trated in the following experiments, conducted by the 
Bath and West of England Society in 1886. The de- 
scription of the experiments is taken from K. Henry 
Rew's treatise on Stack Ensilage (London, 1888). 
"The object was to obtain the comparative results, as 
ascertained by chemical analysis, from grass made into 
(1) hay, (2) sweet silage, (3) sour silage. Six small 
silos, each having a capacity of about 250 cubic feet, 
were carefully filled. The grass was all taken from the 
same meadow, and the conditions of making both silage 



SILAGE. 



173 



and grass equalized with great pains. The following 
were the six different descriptions made : 

"No. 1. Sour Ensilage — rammed and compressed as rap- 
idly as possible. The temperature to be kept down to 50 
degrees F., or as near thereto as possible. The silo to be 
filled and covered in one day. It is anticipated that the 
only acid present in this ensilage will be lactic, and per- 
haps a little butyric acid. 

"No, 2. Sour Ensilage — temperature to be kept below 
120 degrees F. This to be trodden and compressed as mu2h 
as would be practicable in a general way. The filling of 
this silo may extend over a week. The acid in this ensil- 
age, it is expected, will be both lactic and acetic. 

Pee Cent Water, Acidity and Protein Compounds in 
Samples of Grass Silage. 



Water „ . . 

Lactic acid 

Acetic acid 

Total nitrogen . 
Amide nitro- 



gen 

Per cent loss in 
gross weight . 



o 



70.50 



.42 

.08 



15.60 



1.45 

.42 

73.97 



79.40 


79.17 


26 


.17 


.32 


13 


.34 


.32 


.14 


.12 


9.10 


9.28 



77.12 
.14 
.06 
.37 

.10 

18.40 







-"J* 


in 


o 


o 


49.75 


76.90 


.14 


.26 


.04 


.10 


.86 


.37 


.22 


.15 


60.61 


4.50 



77.91 
46 
31 
35 



15 



"No. 3. Sweet Ensilage — made by carting the grass as 
cut direct to the silo, treading it well in at the sides, but 
not in the center. Temperature regulated from 140 degrees 
to 150 degrees F. This should produce a fruity type of 
sweet ensilage. 

"No, 4, Sweet Ensilage — the grass allowed to lie in the 
field one day after cutting, and then made in the same way 



174 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

as No. 3. Intended to produce an aromatic type of sweet 
ensilage. 

"No. 5. Sour Ensilage — the grass to be chaffed and the 
silo filled at once and covered, as in No. 1. 

"No. 6. Sweet Ensilage — the same as No. 3 silage, with, 
the exception that the grass is to be chaffed." 

We notice that the analyses by Doctor Voelcker, 
given in the preceding table, do not corroborate the pre- 
dictions made concerning the acidity of the different 
kinds of silage. On the other hand, the largest amount 
of acetic acid was obtained in No. 1 silage, which was 
not expected to have any volatile acid, while No. 6 
silage, made at a temperature from 140° to 150° F., 
contains the same amount of acetic acid as No. 1 and 
two-tenths of one per cent more lactic acid. The_ aver- 
age losses of dry matter in the different kinds of silage 
were about 14 per cent. 

Sweet and Sour Silage. — The analyses of silage 
given in the preceding do not show the differences be- 
tween sour and sweet silage as we understand the terms. 
The former is rich in water and in volatile organic acids, 
while the latter is as a rule comparatively dry, only 
slightly acid, and contains especially but a very small 
quantity of acetic (volatile) acid. There has been a 
good deal of discussion on the subject of sweet and 
sour silage, and various theories have been advanced 
in explanation of the fermentations taking place in the 
silo at different temperatures. 

Mr. George Fry was one of the earliest advocates of 
sweet silage; his book, "The Theory and Practice of 
Sweet Ensilage," published in 1885, has been trans- 
lated into German, and has had a good deal of influence 



175 
SILAGE. '■ ' ^ 



in Enoland and on the European continent in spread- 
ing the siloing system and making its underlying prin- 
ciples better understood. 

It may be stated in passing that the term sweet stage 
correctly speaking, is a misnomer, since all kinds ot 
silage Jm contain a quantity of acid. Acetic acid seems 
to be present in the sour silage in larger quantity thaii 
in sweet silage, and being volatile, will at once be noticed. 
The popular idea that there is no acid in sweet silage 
may come from the fact that it does not give oft a s rong 
acid odor like sour silage, the acid in this case being 
largely present as non-volatile acid which cannot be 
detected by the smell. The "opti«""^';/emi^rature o 
the acetic acid bacteria lies lower than that of he lactic 
acid bacteria, and the temperatures at which these bac- 
teria are killed, very likely stand in the same relation 

to one another. 

The English have made careful observations concern- 
in.^ the question of temperature in silage making In 
the silo stacks which are very common in England, the 
temperature of the mass may be closely followed with- 
out anv difficulty, and may be largely governed by 
applications of greater or smaller pressure. Doctor 
Fream, in his "Elements of Agriculture," gives the 
following discussion of the appearance of silage m dit- 
ferent layers, and of the relation of temperature to 

acidity in the silo: 

"If an open-air silage stack is viewed m section from 
top to bottom, the lower layers will be seen to be greener 
than the upper, whilst the color gradually becomes 
browner toward the top, which will be almost of a burnt- 
coffee color. The bottom layers have been converted 



176 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

into green or sour silage, because the pressure of the 
material above has excluded the air, and fermentation 
has taken place at a low temperature, there not having 
been sufficient air to supply the oxygen for a high- 
temperature fermentation. As less weight was applied 
to the upper portion, there was freer access of air to it, 
and more air was retained among the mass, hence a 
higher fermentation. The color thus affords an indica- 
tion of the temperature at which the fermentation took 
place. It is generally recognized that silage made at a 
temperature below 120° Fahrenheit is sour silage, whilst 
that which has not risen above 90° Fahrenheit is com- 
monly spoken of as ^low-temperature sour,' and that 
which has exceeded 90° Fahrenheit as ^high-temper- 
ature sour.' Between 120° and 130° there are generally 
veins or seams of sweet and sour silage intermingled. 
From 130° to 140° a shade of brown is discernable. 
Between 140° and 160° it is decidedly brown, and 
above 160° it is over-heated and very similar in appear- 
ance to over-heated hay, whilst the flavor denotes burn- 
ing. In any case fermentation ceases as soon as all 
available oxygen is used up, the air that exists amongst 
the herbage being then rich in carbonic acid gas." 

In our modern system of siloing fodders in deep sepa- 
rate silo structures we rarely have low-fermentation 
silage, since the somewhat dry condition of the siloed 
fodder necessarily admits of considerable air in the silo, 
which gives the bacterial life a chance to flourish for a 
short time. On the other hand, our deep silos increase 
the pressure of the mass so as to hold the fermentations 
in check to a certain extent. The temperature in most 
of our silos will not be likely to exceed 130° Fahrenheit^ 



SILAGE. 



17t 



at least not in the lower layers. While silage produced 
at this temperature would not be termed sweet silage 
according to the preceding definitions, the comparative 
absence of free volatile acids in it, its pleasant aromatic 
odor and not marked sour taste, properly bring it T\^ith- 
in the term as used by American writers. In the system 
of slow filling of silos, the various layers of silage have 
ample time to heat up and temperatures above 150° 
are reached. Silage produced at this temperature con- 
tains less acid than that produced below 150°, but the 
losses of food materials are at the same time larger. 

Digestibility of Silage. 

A considerable number of digestion experiments with 
various kinds of silage have been made. The author, in 
1888-89, conducted a digestion experiment with corn 
silage and with corresponding field-cured fodder corn, 
feeding two cows exclusively on these feeds in two suc- 
cessive periods. The average digestion coefficients 
obtained for both cows were as follows : 



Digestion Coefficients of Corn Silage and Fodder 

Corn. 



Albumi- 
noids. 

24 

30 



Corn silage. 
Cured fod- 
der corn . 



Dry 
Matter. 


Ash. 


Crude 
Protein. 


Crude 
Fiber. 


Nitrogen 
Free Ex- 
tract. 


Ether 
Extract 


63 

60 


20 
19 


54 
49 


47 
56 


72 
65 


82 
69 



This statement shows a somewhat lower digestibility 
of the dry matter, protein, nitrogen-free extract, and 
ether extract of the field-cured fodder corn, than of the 
corresponding components of corn silage, and a higher 
digestibility of the crude fiber and the true albuminoids. 



178 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

As these data were obtained in a single trial with only 
two cows, too much importance should not be 
attached to the detailed results. We may only call 
attention to the fact that the digestibility of the corn 
silage proved fully equal to that of the dry fodder corn 
of the same origin. 

Since this experiment was conducted, a number of 
digestion experiments have been made with different 
kinds of silage and fodder corn. The average digestion 
coefficients obtained have been computed by Jordan, 
and include the work done with twenty-four samples of 
fodder corn and seventeen samples of corn silage, fifty 
and thirty-seven single trials for fodder corn and 
corn silage, respectively, having been made. The aver- 
age digestion coefficients for green fodder are also given, 
and include thirty trials, with fifteen different samples. 

The digestion coefficients for dry matter are prac- 
tically the same in all four cases, since the differences 
appearing may be considered within the limits of ex- 
perimental errors; the same holds true for the coeffi- 
cients for crude protein, except in case of immature 
fodder corn, the protein of which is more digestible 
(by at least 9 per cent) than that of any of the other 
feeding stuffs. The crude fiber and the ether extract 
of silage are more digestible than the same components 
in the corresponding silage. In case of ether extract, 
this is due to the fact that lactic acid is formed during 
the siloing period which would appear as wholly digest- 
ible. The nitrogen-free extract of corn silage is some- 
what less digestible than that of fodder corn, although 
the difference in case of ripe corn is too small to be 
considered. 



SILAGE. 179 

It may be said, in general, that so far as our present 
knowledge goes, there is no appreciable difference in 
the digestibility of corn silage and dry fodder corn 
made from ripe corn, and that both of these foods are 
somewhat less digestible than the immature fodder corn. 
The small differences found in the digestion coefficients 
for ripe fodder and corresponding silage are in favor 
of the latter. (For table see page 189.) 

Losses of Food Materials in the Silo. 

In the early stages of the silo movement in this coun- 
try and abroad, a great deal was said about the losses of 
food materials in the silo, and scientific men were rather 
inclined to take a stand against the silo on account of 
the results of the investigations made on this point. 
Neither is this to be wondered at when we remember 
that chemical analyses had repeatedly shown that one- 
third to one-half of the total dry matter put into the 
silo had disappeared during the siloing period through 
the fermentation processes taking place in the silo. 
Later investigations with deep silos, where modern 
siloing methods were followed, have shown, however, 
that these results were due to the imperfect silo meth- 
ods followed, and not inherent in this process of pre- 
serving green forage. It was furthermore not known 
at that time that similar, or, in fact, still greater losses 
take place in ordinary field-curing and handling of dry 
fodder corn. 

Losses IxV Field-Curing Fodder Corn. — The ex- 
periments conducted at the Wisconsin Experiment Sta- 
tion in 1887 by Professor Henry and myself were, as 



180 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

far as I know, the first attempts to ascertain the amount 
of the loss of nutritive elements of fodder corn, on being 
field-cured in large shocks and stored during the greater 
portion of the winter. Corn fodder was left shocked in 
the field for a month, and then stored in a barn until 
fed out. By analyses of the fodder as it was shocked, 
and when fed out, it was found that a yellow dent corn 
had lost in the interval 18.55 per cent of the dry matter 
originally contained in it, while a large sweet corn, that 
had to be reshocked in the field on account of its begin- 
ning to heat, lost 36.61 per cent of dry matter. Nearly 
nine tons of green fodder was cut and shocked in each 
case. 

These losses were surprisingly large, and the work 
was carefully repeated the following year in a similar 
way as before. The quantities of fodder corn shocked, 
and the losses of dry matter and protein obtained are 
shown below. At the same time that these shocks were 
put up, strictly comparative lots of the same varieties 
were cut for the silo, and the quantities of dry matter 
and protein put into and taken out of the silo determined 
as in case of the shocked fodder. The results obtained 
with both lots of fodder are shown in the following table : 



SILAGE. 



181 



Losses in Field-Curing and in Siloing Indian Corn.— 

1887-88. 





Field-Cured Fodder Corn. 


Siloed Fodder Corn. 


Variety op Cork. 




t-T 

fc.'O . 
it! O OD 


Lose. 


a^ 


Loss. 




CO 


4-^ 

a> a; 








1^0 


Yellow Flint — 
Dry Matter.. 


11,401 
2,552.7 

159 
14,972 
4,689 6 
3i2.1 

15,464 
3,997.9 
292.2 
14,890 
4,197 
343.4 


3,847 
2,256 

138 
5,142.5 
3,669 

308.9 

5,076 
3,483 

277 
4,358.5 
3,357 

282 


7,554 
296.7 

21 
9 829.5 
1,020.6 

13 2 

10,388 

514.9 

15.2 

10,531.5 

840 

61.4 












11.6 
13.4 

2i.8 
4 1 

i2'9 
5.2 

20 
17.9 


















Sheep's Tooth.... 

Dry Matter 

Crude Protein. . . 

Smedley Yellow 

Dent 

Dry Matter 

Crude Protein.... 
Yellow Flint — 

Dry Matter 

Crude Protein. .. 


14,002 
3,431.5 
235.8 

15.288 
4,150.3 
303 3 
17,218 
3,844 
314.4 


12,225 
2,800.7 
182.9 

12,151 
3,373.5 
231.7 
14,540 
3.355 
258.3 


1,7:7 

630.8 
42.9 

3,137 
776 8 
71. b 
2,677 
489 
56.1 


12.7 
18. 4 
224 

20.5 
167 
23. 6 
15.5 
12.7 
178 


Average Losses . . 








16.5 
10.1 








15 9 

















?A 3 













As shown by the table, the average loss of dry matter 
in the shocked corn was but slightly higher than in the 
small experimental silo used (8x7, 14 feet deep; capac- 
ity about 12 tons), while the loss of crude protein was 
less than half as much. 

These results led to a further study of the losses in 
field-curing and siloing fodder corn during 1889, when 
the problem was investigated in a more systematic man- 
ner and under a greater variety of conditions than 
before. We cannot here give the results in detail ; suf- 
fice it to say that 1-19 shocks of corn, of nine different 
varieties, were put up in all, and the amounts of dry 
matter and protein contained in the shocks when fresh 
and when cured were determined in all cases; the 
shocks presented a large variety of conditions, small 



182 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



and large, husked and unhusked corn, shocks left in the 
field for different lengths of time, and shocks cured 
indoors, etc. The losses of dry matter found ranged 
from 6.9 per cent to 33.9 per cent. The former result 
was obtained in case of four shocks of Pride of the 
North yellow dent corn, and the latter in case of ten 
shocks of StowelFs Evergreen sweet corn, husked and 
left in the field for 2^ months, on the average. Eleven 
shocks of large sweet fodder corn, cured under cover, 
lost, on the average, 8.2 per cent of dry matter. The 
averages of the results obtained during this year at the 
Wisconsin Station are given below. 

Losses in Field-Curing and in Siloing Indian Corn. 





Field-Cured Fodder Corn. 


Siloed Fodder Com. 


N. 


Green 

Fodder, 

lbs. 


Cured 

Fodder, 

lbs. 


Loss. 


Green 

Fodder, 

lbs. 




Lot-s. 






19.6 

22.8 


DO 


PhCJ 


Av. for 9 Yaneties', 

149Sbocks 

Dry Matter 


14,906 
1,172.5 


11,979.2 
905.7 


•2,926.8 
266.8 


12,781 llOOlO 


2,741 
158 


•}A 5 


Crude Protein , 


1.024.6 


876 G 


15.4 



This investigation was continued during the season of 
1890, on a larger scale than in previous years. Sixty- 
five tons of green fodder corn was siloed, and the same 
quantity was cut and shocked in the field. The result- 
ing losses of dry matter and protein found in both cases 
are shown in the following table, with a summary of 
the work done in this line for four consecutive years. 



SILAGE. 



183 



Losses in Field-Curing and in Siloing Indian Corn. 



Field-Cured Fodder Corn, 






Av. FOB Two Vak. 
Total Weight 

Dry Matter 

Crude Protein . . . 
Results of Four 
Years' Work 

Dry Matter 

Crude Protein , 



Loss. 



(U 



^2 






Siloed Fodder Corn. 



Loss. 






M 



Mi; 






s- 13 



129,014 U,73S 
32.432 23,270 
2,580.51 1,682 



72,164 54,937 17,227 
5,706.4 4,317.51,383.9 



9,162 28.3 
898.5 34 8 



129,014 105,824 23,190 



238 
243 



32,432 1 29,090 
2,580.5| 2,557 



68,034 1 57,411 
5,490.8 4,569.5 



3,342 
323.5 



18 

10. 3 
12.5 



10,623 
921.3 



156 
168 



The results ^iven in the preceding table show that 
15 6 per cent and 23.8 per cent of dry matter were lost 
in the siloing and the field-curing of fodder corn, re- 
spectively, while the protein (flesh-forming substances) 
lost amounted to 24.3 per cent in the field-curing pro- 
cess, and 16.8 per cent in the siloing process. 

Later researches have proved that these average fig- 
ures must be considered rather low losses for the ficld- 
curinc of fodder corn, and rather high losses for the 
silo \he results given in the last table concerning the 
losses in field-curing fodder corn have been corroborated 
by similar work at the New Jersey, Vermont, Pennsyl- 
vania, Colorado, and other experiment stations, where 
shocks of fodder corn were carefully kept in the field, 
or under cover, for a period of one to several months, 
and the dry matter contents at shocking time, and when 
fhe shocks were taken down, were carefully determined 
by chemical analysis. As the conditions described m 
the investigation at the Colorado Experiment Station 
will apply to most places on our continent, particularly 
in the Northwest and West, we quote rather fully from 



184 



MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 



the account of the experiments given by Professor 
Cooke : 

"It is believed by most farmers that, in the dry climate 
of Colorado, fodder corn, where cut and shocked in 
good shape, cures without loss of feeding value, and that 
the loss of weight that occurs is merely due to the dry- 
ing out of the water. A test of this question was made 
in the fall of 1893, and the results obtained seemed to 
indicate that fully a third of the feeding value was lost 
in the curing. This result was so surprising that the 
figures were not published, fearing that some error had 
crept in, though w^e could not see where there was the 
possibility of a mistake. 

"In the fall of 1894, the test was repeated on a larger 
scale. A lot of corn was carefully weighed and sampled. 
It was then divided into three portions : One was spread 
on the ground in a thin layer, the second part was set up 
in large shocks, containing about five hundred pounds 
of green fodder in each, while the rest was shocked in 
smaU bundles. After remaining thus for some months, 
until thoroughly cured, the portions were weighed, 
sampled, and analyzed separately. The table gives the 
losses that occurred in the curing. 



- 


Large Shocks. 


Small Shocks. 


On the Ground. 




Total 
Weight. 


Dry 
Matter. 


Total 
Weight. 


Dry 

Matter. 


Total 

Weight. 


Dry 
Matter. 


When Shocked 

After Curing 

Loss in Weight. .... 
Per Cent of Loss. . 


Lbs. 

952 

258 

694 

73 


Lbs. 

217 

150 

67 

31 


Lbs. 

294 

64 

230 

78 


Lbs. 

77 
44 
33 
43 


Lbs. 

186 

33 

153 

82 


Lbs. 

42 
19 
23 
55 



SiLAGE^. 185 

^'So far as could be told by the eye, there had been 
no loss. The fodder had cured in nice shape, and the 
stalks on the inside of the bundles retained their green 
color, with no sign of molding or heating. And yet the 
large shocks had lost 31 per cent of their dry matter, or 
feeding value; the small shocks, 43 per cent, and the 
corn spread on the ground, 55 per cent. 

"On breaking or cutting the stalks, these losses were 
explained. The juice was acid, and there was a very 
strong acid odor, showing that an active fermentation 
was taking place in this seemingly dry fodder. We had 
noticed this strong odor the fall before and all through 
this winter. When the fodder corn for the steers is 
put through the feed cutter, that same strong smell is 
present. 

"It can be said, then, that the dryness of the climate 
in Colorado does not prevent fodder corn from losing 
a large part of its feeding value through fermentation. 
Indeed, the loss from this source is fully as great as in 
the damp climate of New England. 

"As compared with the losses by fermentation in the 
silo, the cured fodder shows considerabl}^ the higher 
loss." 

In the experiments by the author during the fall of 
1889, quoted above, eleven shocks cured under cover in 
the barn lost on an average over 8 per cent of dry 
matter and toward 14 per cent of protein. In a recent 
experiment at Maine Experiment Station, 14.13 per 
cent of dry matter was lost in the process of slow dry- 
ing of a large sample of fodder corn under the most 
favorable circumstances. "It is interesting to note that 
this loss falls almost entirely on the nitrogen-free ex- 



186 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

tract;, or carbohydrates, more than two-thirds of it be- 
ing actually accounted for by the diminished percent- 
age of sugars." 

Since such losses will occur in fodder cured under 
cover with all jDOssible care, it is evident that the average 
losses of dry matter in field-curing fodder corn, given 
in the preceding, by no means can be considered exag- 
gerated, but must, on the contrary, be too small, as a 
careful study of the conditions of the various experi- 
ments will readily show. Exposure to rain and storm, 
abrasion of dry leaves and thin stalks, and other factors 
tend to diminish the nutritive value of the fodder, aside 
from the Josses from fermentations, so that very often 
onl}^ one-half of the food materials originally present in 
the fodder is left by the time it is fed out. The re- 
maining portion of the fodder has, furthermore, a lower 
digestibility and a lower feeding value than the fodder 
corn when put up, for the reason that the fermentations 
occurring during the curing process destroy the most 
valuable and easily digestible part, i. e., the sugar and 
starch of the nitrogen-free extract, which are soluble, 
or readily rendered soluble, in the process of digestion. 

Necessary Losses in the Silo. — The losses of dry 
matter and protein during the siloing period previously 
given amounted to 15.6 and 16.8 per cent, respectively,- 
as an average of four years' trials at the Wisconsin Ex- 
periment Station. There is, however, an abundance of 
evidence at hand showing that these figures are higher 
than those found in actual practice, and that they 
considerably exceed the necessary losses sustained in the 
silo. During the last half-dozen years our methods of 
siloing green fodder have been greatly perfected, mainly 



SILAGE. 187 

through improvements in the construction and form of 
silo buildings. The old silos were shallow, and the ex- 
perimental silos in the experiments reviewed in the pre- 
ceding, as well as elsewhere, were both shallow and very 
small. Under these conditions it is but natural that the 
losses found should be excessive, since two of the essen- 
tials in siloing fodders were absent — sufficient pressure 
to largely exclude the air from the siloed mass, and a 
minimum of wall space in proportion to the quantity 
of fodder siloed. 

There are now plenty of cases on record showing 
that the results obtained by the author in the experi- 
ments of 1890 amply cover the necessary losses of dry 
matter in siloing fodder corn and that 10 per cent rep- 
resents the maximum loss of dry matter in modern 
deep, well-built silos. The losses of dry matter obtained 
in siloing corn at the Wisconsin Experiment Station 
during the last eight years have come at or below this 
figure. It is possible to reduce this loss still further by 
avoiding any spoilt silage on the surface, which we saw 
ma}^ easily be done by beginning to feed immediately 
after the filling of the silo. Experiments conducted on 
a small scale by Professor King in 1894 gave losses of 
only 2 to 3 per cent of dry matter, on the strength of 
which results, amongst others, he believes that the neces- 
sary loss of dry matter in the silo need not exceed 5 
per cent. 

Summarizing our considerations concerning the rela- 
tive losses of food materials in the field-curing and the 
siloing of Indian corn, we may say that far from being 
less economical than the former, the silo is more so, 
under ordinarily favorable conditions for both systems, 



188 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. , 

and that therefore a larger quantity' of food materials 
is obtained by filling the corn crop into a silo than by 
any other method of preserving it known at the present 
time. 

Necessary Losses in Siloing Clover. — Only a 
few siloing experiments have been made with clover, 
but enough has been done to show that the necessary 
losses in siloing this crop do not much, if any, exceed 
those of the green corn. Lawes and Gilbert of the 
Rothamsted Experiment Station, England, placed 264,- 
318 pounds of first- and second-crop clover into one of 
their stone silos, and took out 191,470 pounds of good 
clover silage. Loss in gross weight, 24.9 per cent. This 
loss fell, however, largely on the water in the clover. 
The loss of dry matter amounted to only 5.1 per cent, 
very nearly the same amount of loss as that which the 
same experimenters found had taken place in a large 
rick of about forty tons of hay, after standing for two 
years. The loss of protein in the silo amounted to 8.2 
per cent. In another silo 184,959 pounds of second- 
crop grass and second-crop clover were j)^it in, and 
170,941 pounds were taken out. Loss in gross weight, 
7.6 per cent; loss of dry matter, 9.7 per cent: of crude 
protein, 7.8 per cent pounds. 

In a siloing experiment with clover, conducted at the 
Wisconsin Experiment Station, on a smaller scale, Mr. 
F. G. Short obtained the following results : Clover put 
into the silo, 12,279 pounds; silage taken out, 9,283 
pounds; loss, 24.4 per cent; loss of dry matter, 15.4 
per cent; of protein, 12.7 per cent. 

There is nothing in any of these figures to argue 
against the siloing of green clover as an economical 



SILAGE. 



189 



process. On the other hand, in view of what has been 
previously stated concerning clover silage, we conclude 
that this method of pre&erving the clover crop is highly 
valuable, and, in most cases, to be preferred to making 
hay of the crop. 

No extended investigation has been made as to the 
losses sustained in the siloing of alfalfa, but there can 
be little doubt but that they are considerably smaller 
than in making alfalfa hay, if proper precautions 
guarding against unnecessary losses in the silo are taken. 
According to the testimony of Prof. Headden of the 
Colorado Experiment Station, the minimum loss from 
the falling off of leaves and stems in successful alfalfa 
hay making amounts to from 15 to 20 per cent, and in 
cases where the conditions have been unfavorable, to as 
much as 60 and even G6 per cent of the hay crop. Aside 
from the losses sustained through abrasion, rain storms, 
when these occur, may reduce the value of the hay one- 
half. The losses from either of these sources are avoided 
in preserving the crop in the silo, and in their place a 
small loss through fermentation occurs, under ordinary 
favorable conditions, amounting to about 10 per cent 
or less. 

Average Digestion Coefficients for Corn Silage and 
FOR Green and Cured Fodder Corn. 



Green fodder corn 
Cured fodder corn 
Corn silage 



Dry 
Matter. 


Ash. 


Crude 
Protein. 


Crude 
Fiber. 


N. Free 
Extract. 


68 
66 
66 


35 
34 

31 


61 
55 
53 


61 
66 
67 


74 
69 
70 



Ether 
Extract. 



74 
72 
81 



CHAPTER IV.— FEEDING OF SILAGE. 

Silage may be fed with advantage to all classes of 
farm animals, milch cows, steers, horses, mules, sheep, 
swine, and even poultry. Neither does this enumera- 
tion finish the list of animals that take readily to silage. 
Kiihn states that not only did the various European 
breeds of cattle in the herd of the Agricultural College 
of Halle (Germany) eat c6rn silage with a relish, but 
this wAs also the case with the long-horned Sanga, di- 
rectly imported from Africa; the Yak, a native of the 
plains of Central Asia; and the crosses of Yak and 
Gayal. The corn silage was also eaten by all of the 
common breeds of sheep, and by the Asiatic and African 
breeds; the fine-wooled Electoral, Negrettis, and Ram- 
bouillet, especially, took to it kindly. The Mouflon 
crosses also ate it, but less readily. It was liked by 
goats, and especially by those of the Angora breed. The 
same was true of the asses and the mules bred at the 
Halle College. 

Silage should not be fed as an exclusive coarse feed 
to farm animals, but always in connection with some 
dry roughage. The nearer maturity the corn is when 
cut for the silo, the more silage may safely be fed at a 
time, but it is always well to avoid feeding it excessively. 

The silo should always be emptied from the top in hor- 
izontal layers, and the surface kept level, so as to expose 
as little of the silage as possible to the air. It should 
be fed out sufficiently rapidly to avoid spoiling of the 
silage; in ordinary Northern winter weather a couple 

190 



FEEDING OF SILAGE. 191 

of inch layer should be fed off daily. (See p. 44.) A 
convenient cart for hauling silage and a silage truck 
are shown in Figs. 60 and 61. 

Silage for Milch Cows. 

Silage is par excellence a cow feed. Since the intro- 
duction of the silo in this country, the dairymen, more 
than any other class of farmers, have been among the 
most enthusiastic siloists, and up to the present time we 
find a larger number of silos in dairy districts than in 
any other regions where animal husbandry is a promi- 
nent industry. As with other farm animals, cows fed 
silage should receive other roughage in the shape of 
corn stalks, hay, etc. The quantities of silage fed should 
not exceed forty or, at the outside, fifty pounds per day 
per head. It is possible that a maximum allowance of 
only 25 to 30 pounds per head daily is to be preferred 
where the keeping quality of the milk is an important 
consideration. The silage may be given in one or two 
feeds daily, and, in case of cows in milk, always after 
milking, and not before or during the same, as the 
peculiar silage odor will, in the latter case, be apt to 
reappear in the milk. 

Silage exerts a very beneficial influence on the secre- 
tion of milk. Where winter dairying is practiced, cows 
will usually drop considerably in milk toward spring, 
if fed on dry feed, causing a loss of milk through the 
whole remaining portion of the lactation period. If 
silage is fed there will be no such marked decrease in 
the flow of milk before turning out to grass, and the 
cows will be able to keep up well in milk until late in 
the summer, or early in the fall, when they are to be 

13 




bi»i^^.^\^\\^\\\\\\\^^^^^^^ 



-yi 

:;=?> i^ 

w 



FEEDING OF SILAGE. 



193 



dried up preparatory to calving. Silage has a similar 
efteet on the milk secretion as green fodder or pasture, 
and if made from well-matured corn, so as not to con- 
tain an excessive amount of acid, is more like these 
feeds than any other nt tho disposal of the farmer. 





FIG. 61. SIL,AQE TRUCK. 

The feeding of silage, to milch cows has sometimes 
been objected to when the milk was intended for the 
manufacture of certain kinds of cheese, or of condensed 
milk, and there are instances where such factories have 
enjoined their patrons from feeding silage to their cows. 
When the silage is properly prepared and properly fed, 
there can be no foundation whatever for this injunc- 
tion; it has been repeatedly demonstrated that Swiss 
cheese of superior quality can be made from the milk 
of silage-fed cows, and condensing factories among 
whose patrons silage is fed have been able to manufac- 
ture a faultless product. The quality of the silage made 
during the first dozen years of silo experience in this 
country was frequently very poor, being sour and often 
spoilt in large quantities, and, what may have been still 



194 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

more important, it was sometimes fed in an injudicious 
manner, cows being made to subsist on this feed as 
exclusive roughage. Under these conditions it is not 
to be wondered at that the quality of the milk should be 
JoWered, and that manufacturers preferred to entirely 
prohibit the use of it rather than to teach their patrons 
to follow proper methods in the making and feeding of 
silage. There is an abundance of evidence at hand 
showing that good silage fed in moderate quantities 
will produce an excellent quality of both butter and 
cheese. According to the testimony of butter experts, 
silage' not only in no way injures the flavor of butter, 
but better-flavored butter is produced by judicious silage 
feeding than can be made from dry feed. 

The combinations in which corn silage will be used 
in feeding milch cows will depend a good deal on local 
conditions; it may be said in general that it should be. 
supplemented by a fair proportion of nitrogenous feeds 
like clover hay, wheat bran, ground oats, linseed meal, 
cotton-seed meal, etc. To illustrate the quantities and 
combinations in which silage may be fed to milch cows, 
we give below a number of practical feed rations pub- 
lished in two bulletins by the author, viz. : Nos. 33 and 
38, of the Wisconsin Experiment Station (October, 
1892, and January, 1894). The former of these pub- 
lications includes the rations fed to the herds of milch 
cows of fifteen Wisconsin dairymen, and the latter those 
fed by one hundred dairymen and breeders scattered 
over different parts of the United States and Canada. 
Only rations which include silage are given here; they 
are the outcome of practical feeding experience under 
varied conditions, and may be used as guides in making 



FEEDING OF SILAGE. ' 195 

up feed rations for dairy cows. While they may not all 
be theoretically correct, they may easily be modified, if 
need be, so as to conform to our best knowledge on the 
subject. 

It will serve as an illustration of the present general 
use of silage among progressive dairymen in our country 
to state that of the one hundred farmers furnishing the 
feed rations fed to their dairy cows, in the latter bulle- 
tin mentioned, sixty-four were feeding silage to their 
stock, this feed being used a larger number of times than 
any other single cattle food, wheat bran only excepted. 

AMERICAN SILAGE RATIONS FOR DAIRY COWS. 

1. Corn silage, 30 lbs.; hay, 6^2 lbs.; corn and cob 
meal, 5 lbs.; ground oats, 5 lbs.; linseed meal, 3 lbs. 

2. Corn silage, 27 lbs.; dry fodder corn, 8 lbs.; clover 
hay, 6 lbs.; oat straw, li/^ lbs.; wheat bran, 4 lbs.; linseed 
meal, 4 lbs. 

3. Corn silage, 35 lbs.; hay, 5 lbs.; malt sprouts, 4 lbs.; 
wheat bran, 2% lbs.; cotton seed meal, li/^ lbs. 

4. Corn silage, 30 lbs.; cut sheaf oats, 6 lbs.; mixed 
meadow hay, 10 lbs.; wheat bran, 4 lbs.; linseed meal, 2 lbs. 

5. Corn silage, 30 lbs.; cut cornstalks, 12 lbs.; wheat 
bran, 3% lbs.; corn meal, 3 lbs.; oats, 3*4 lbs., with a 
sprinkling of peas. 

6. Corn silage, 32 lbs.; clover silage, 22 lbs.; clover and 
timothy hay mixed, 5 lbs.; wheat bran, 6 lbs.; ground 
oats, 4 lbs.; cotton seed meal, 3 lbs. 

7. Corn silage, 35 lbs.; hay, about 11 lbs.; wheat bran, 
3 1-3 lbs.; ground oats, 2 1-3 lbs.; linseed meal (O. P.) 
2 1-3 lbs. 

8. Corn silage, 30 lbs.; hay, 8 lbs.; corn fodder, 5 lbs.; 
ground oats, 4 lbs.; pea meal, 2 lbs. 

9. Corn silage, 40 lbs.; clover hay, 8 lbs.; wheat bran, 
6 lbs.; pea meal, 2 lbs. 



196 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

10. Whole corn silage, 25 lbs.; clover hay, 10 lbs.; 
wheat bran, 10 lbs. 

11. Corn silage, 40 lbs.; clover hay, 5 lbs.; timothy hay, 
5 lbs.; wheat bran, iVz lbs.; middlings, 41/^ lbs. 

12. Corn silage, 45 lbs.; clover hay, 12 lbs.; wheat 
shorts, 8 lbs.; corn meal, 4 lbs. 

13. Corn silage, 24 lbs.; corn fodder, 15 lbs.; clover hay, 
5 lbs.; wheat bran, 5 lbs. 

14. Corn silage, 40 lbs.; alfalfa hay, 15 lbs.; wheat bran, 

4 lbs.; corn chop, 4 lbs. 

15. Corn silage, 35 lbs.; hay, 10 lbs.; wheat bran, 3 lbs.; 
corn and cob meal, 3 lbs.; cotton seed meal, 2 lbs.; gluten 
meal, 2 lbs. 

16. Corn silage, 50 lbs.; wheat shorts, 4 lbs.; grano- 
gluten feed, 4 lbs. 

17. Corn silage, 30 lbs.; clover hay, 5 lbs.; corn fodder, 3 
lbs.; straw, 2 lbs.; wheat bran, 5 lbs.; linseed meal, 2 lbs.; 
cotton seed meal, 2 lbs. 

18. Corn silage, 40 lbs.; timothy and clover hay, 5 lbs.; 
wheat bran or shorts, 7 lbs. 

19. Corn silage, 40 lbs.; English hay, 5 lbs.; clover hay, 

5 lbs.; wheat bran, 2 lbs.; gluten meal, 2 lbs.; cotton seed 
meal, 1 lb.; linseed meal, 1 lb. 

20. Corn silage, 40 lbs.; hay, 6 lbs.; gluten meal, 2 lbs.,- 
corn and cob meal, 2 lbs.; wheat shorts, 2 lbs. 

21. Corn silage, 50 lbs.; hay, 8 lbs.; wheat bran, 3 lbs.; 
wheat shorts, 2 lbs.; ground rye and oats, 3 lbs.; barley, 2 
lbs. 

22. Corn silage, 35 lbs.; clover hay, 10 lbs.; oat straw, 2 
lbs.; corn meal, 5 lbs.; wheat bran, 5 lbs.; oats, 5 lbs. 

23. Corn silage, 35 lbs.; hay, 7 lbs.; brewers' grains, 20 
lbs.; gluten meal, IV^ lbs.; cotton seed meal, IVz lbs.; wheat 
shorts, iy2 lbs.; linseed meal, 1^^ lbs. 

24. Corn silage, 24 lbs.; corn meal, 8 lbs.; wheat bran, 2 
lbs.; oats, 4 lbs.; linseed meal, 2 lbs. 

25. Corn silage, 40 lbs.; corn fodder, 10 lbs.; cotton seed 
meal, 21/^ lbs.; N. P. linseed meal, 2 lbs.; wheat bran, 4 lbs. 



FEEDING OF SILAGE. 197 

26. Corn silage, 40 lbs.; timothy hay, 10 lbs.; wheat 
bran, 5 lbs.; corn meal, 3 lbs.; linseed meal, 2 lbs. 

27. Corn silage, 50 lbs.; hay, 5 lbs.; wheat bran, 4 lbs.; 
linseed meal, 2 lbs.; cotton seed meal, 1 lb.; ground rye, 

1 lb. 

28. Corn silage, 40 lbs.; cotton seed meal, 3 lbs.; corn 
starch feed, 18 lbs. 

29. Corn silage, 30 lbs.; clover hay, 12 lbs.; wheat mid- 
dlings, 8 lbs.; linseed meal, 1 lb. 

30. Corn silage, 42 lbs.; clover and timothy hay, 5 lbs.; 
corn and cob meal, 8 lbs.; dried brewers' grains, li/^ lbs. 

31. Corn silage, 30 lbs.; fodder corn, 8 lbs.; corn meal, 3 
lbs.; wheat bran, 3 lbs.; cotton seed meal, 1 lb. 

32. Corn silage, 50 lbs.; clover hay, 8 lbs.; wheat shorts, 
5 lbs. 

33. Corn silage, 30 lbs.; corn stover, 8 lbs.; wheat bran, 
5 lbs.; malt sprouts, 4 lbs.; linseed meal, 1 lb. 

34. Corn silage, 50 lbs.; clover hay, 9 lbs. 

35. Corn silage, 45 lbs.; mixed hay, 7 lbs.; wheat bran, 6 
lbs.; cotton seed meal, 2 lbs. 

36. Corn silage, 15 lbs.; sugar beets, 22 lbs.; hay, 10 lbs.; 
oats, 5.4 lbs.; corn meal, 7 lbs. 

37. Corn silage, 40 lbs.; clover hay, 8 lbs.; coarse linseed 
meal, 6 lbs. 

38. Corn silage, 30 lbs.; sorghum hay, 13i^ lbs.; corn 
meal, 1.3 lbs.; cotton seed meal, 2.6 lbs.; cotton seed, 2.2 
lbs.; wheat bran, 1.3 lbs. 

39. Corn silage, 35 lbs.; mixed hay, 10 lbs.; wheat bran, 

2 lbs.; corn meal, 3.2 lbs.; linseed meal, 1 lb.; cotton seed 
meal, .8 lbs. 

40. Corn silage, 20 lbs.; hay, 14 lbs.; wheat bran, 3 lbs.; 
gluten meal, 2 lbs. 

41. Corn silage, 30 lbs.; hay, 10 lbs.; corn meal, 2 lbs.; 
gluten meal, 2 lbs.; wheat bran, 2 lbs. 

42. Corn silage, 48 lbs.; corn and cob meal, 2i^ lbs.; 
ground wheat, 2i^ lbs.; oats, 2i^ lbs.; barley meal, 2i^ lbs. 

43. Corn silage, 40 lbs.; hay, 5 lbs.; straw, 5 lbs.; wheat 
bran, 41/2 lbs.; oats, 41/2 lbs 



198 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

44. Corn silage, 15 lbs.; turnips, 45 lbs.; wheat chaff, 7 
lbs.; oats, 2i^ lbs.; pea meal, 2i^ lbs. 

45. Corn silage, 30 lbs.; hay, 12 lbs.; ground oats, 10 lbs. 

46. Corn silage, 40 lbs.; turnips, 30 lbs.; clover hay, 8 
lbs.; straw, % lb.; oats, 2 lbs.; wheat bran, 2 lbs. 

47. Corn silage, 50 lbs.; clover hay, 10 lbs.; straw, 3 lbs.; 
pea meal, 5 lbs.; oats, 2 lbs. 

48. Corn silage, 30 lbs.; hay, 1V2 lbs.; straw, 6i^ lbs.; 
turnips, 25 lbs.; pea meal, 1.3 lbs.; oats, 2.5 lbs.; barley, 
1.3 lbs. 

49. Corn silage, 35 lbs.; English hay, 8 lbs.; carrots, 30 
lbs.; wheat bran, 1.2 lbs.; wheat middlings, 1.8 lbs.; cotton 
seed meal, 3 lbs.; oats, 1 lb.; wheat, 2 lbs. 

50. Corn silage, 40 lbs.;, clover hay, 7i/^ lbs.; straw, 3 
lbs.; oats, 1 1-3 lbs.; barley, 1 1-3 lbs.; pea meal, 1 1-3 lbs.; 
wheat bran, 3 lbs.; cotton seed meal, 1 lb. 

The rations given were fed in the following States: Nos. 
1-13, Wisconsin; No. 14, Colo.; No. 15, Conn.; No. 16, 111.; 
No. 17, Ind.; No. 18, la.; Nos. 19-20, Mass.; No. 21, Minn.; 
No. 22, Neb.; No. 23, N. H.; No. 24, N. J.; Nos. 25-30, N. Y.; 
No. 31, N. C; Nos. 32-34, Ohio; Nos. 35-37, Penna.; No. 38, 
Texas; Nos. 39-41, Vt; No. 42, V/. Va.; and Nos. 43-50, 
Canada. 

Silage for Steers. 

Silage may be fed with advantage to steers, in quanti- 
ties up to forty or fifty pounds a day. The health of 
the animals and the quality of the beef produced on 
moderate silage feeding leave nothing to be wished for. 
If the silage is made from immature corn, care must be 
taken not to feed too large quantities at the start and to 
feed carefully, so as not to produce scouring in the 
animals. Professor Henry says in regard" to the value 
of silage for steer feeding: "As with roots, silage 
makes the carcass watery and soft to the touch. Some 



FEEDING OF SILAGE. 199 

have considered this a disadvantage, but is it not a de- 
sirable condition in the fattening steer? Corn and 
roughage produce a hard, dry carcass, and corn burns 
out the digestive tract in the shortest possible time. 
With silage and roots, digestion certainly must be more 
nearly normal, and its profitable action longer con- 
tinued. The tissues of the body are juicy, and the whole 
system must be in just that condition which permits 
rapid fattening. While believing in a large use of silage 
in the preliminary stages, and its continuance during 
most of the fattening period, I would recommend that 
gradually more dry food be substituted as the period 
advances, in order that the flesh may become more solid. 
Used in this way, I believe silage will become an im- 
portant aid in steer feeding in many sections of the 
country. Eesults from Canada, Wisconsin, and Texas 
experiment stations show the broad adaptation of this 
food for stock-fee'ding purposes." 

Young stock may be fed half as much silage as full- 
grown ones, with the same restrictions and precautions 
as given for steers. Experience obtained at the Kansas 
Experiment Station, suggests that corn silage is not a 
fit food for breeding bulls, unless fed only as a relish ; 
fed heavily on silage, bulls lose virility and become slow 
and uncertain breeders. 

Silage for Horses. 

When fed in moderate quantities, not to exceed 
twenty pounds a day, silage is a good food for horses. 
It should be fed twice a day, a light feed being given at 
first and gradually increased as the animals become 
accustomed to the food. Some farmers feed it mixed 



200 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

with cut straw, two-thirds of straw, and one-third of 
silage, and feed all the horses will eat of this mixed feed. 
Some horses object to silage at first on account of its 
peculiar odor, but by sprinkling some oats or bran on 
top of the silage and feeding only very small amounts 
to begin with, they soon learn to eat and relish it. 
Some horses take it willingly from the beginning. 
Horses not working may be fed larger quantities than 
work horses, but in neither case should the silage form 
more than a portion of the coarse feed fed to the 
horses. Silage-fed horses will look well and come out 
in the spring in better condition than when fed almost 
any other food. 

Professor Cook says in regard to silage as a horse 
food: "It has been suggested by even men of high 
scientific attainments that silage is preeminently the 
food for cattle and not for other farm stock. This is 
certainly a mistake. If we raise fall colts, w^hich I find 
very profitable, then silage is just what we need, and 
will enable us to produce colts as excellent as though 
dropped in the spring. This gives us our brood mares 
in first-class trim for the hard summer's work. I find 
silage just as good for young colts and other horses." 

Mr. James M. Turner, an extensive Michigan farmer 
and horse breeder, gives his experience in regard to 
silage for horses as follows : "Last winter we had nearly 
two hundred horses, including Clydesdales, standard- 
bred trotters, and Shetland ponies. They were wintered 
entirely upon straw and corn ensilage, and this in face 
of the fact that I had read a long article in a praminent 
horse journal cautioning farmers from the use of en- 
silage, and citing instances where many animals had 



FEEDING OF SILAGE. 201 

died, and brood mares had aborted from the liberal use 
of corn ensilage. 

"Desiring to test the matter to the fullest extent, 
our stallions and brood mares, as well as all the young 
stock, were fed two full rations of ensilage daily, and 
one liberal ration of wheat or oat straw. The result 
with our brood mares was most phenomenal, for we now 
have to represent every mare that was then in foal on 
the farm, a weanling, strong and vigorous, and appar- 
ently right in every way, with only one exception, where 
the colt was lost by accident. Of course there may have 
been something in the season more favorable than usual, 
but this was the first year in my experience when every 
colt dropped on the farm was saved.'' 

Professors Thorne and Hickman give their experience 
in feeding silage to horses and to other farm animals 
at the Ohio Experiment Station : "Our silo was planned 
and filled with special reference to our dairy stock, but 
after opening the silo we decided to try feeding the 
silage to our horses, calves, and hogs. The result was 
eminently satisfactory. We did not find a cow, calf, 
horse, colt, or hog that refused to eat, or that did not 
eat it with apparent relish, not only for a few days, but 
for full two months. The horses were given one feed 
of twenty pounds each per day in place of the usual 
amount of hay, for the period above named, and it was 
certainly a benefit! Their appetites were sharpened, 
and the healthfulness of the food was further manifest 
in the new coat of hair which came with the usual spring 
shedding. The coat was glossy, the skin loose, and the 
general appearance was that of horses running upon 
pasture/' . 



202 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

Doctor Bailey states that silage has as good an effect 
on work and driving horses as an occasional feed of 
carrots or other roots, and Eew informs us that there 
is a demand for silage in London and ot^ier large Eng- 
lish cities, especially for omnibus, cab, and tram horses. 
According to the testimony of Mr. H. J. Elwes, the 
cart horses fed silage "looked in better condition and 
brighter in their coats than usnal at this time of the 
year." 

From experiments conducted at Virginia Experiment 
Station, Prof. Nourse concludes that "it would appear 
that silage would make a good roughage for horses, 
when used in connection with hay or stover or grain, 
but that these animals should become accustomed to the 
food by degrees, and that this is as important as when 
changing from old to new corn, or from hay to grass." 

What has been said about silage as a food for horses 
will most likely apply equally well to mules, although 
only very limited experience has so far been gained witji 
silage for this class of farm animals. 

Silage for Sheep. 

Silage is looked upon with great favor among sheep 
men; sheep do well on it, and silage-fed ewes drop 
their lambs in the spring without trouble, the lambs 
being strong and vigorous. Silage containing a good 
deal of corn is not well adapted for breeding stock, as 
it is too fattening; for fattening stock, on the other 
hand, much corn in the silage is an advantage. Sheep 
may be fed a couple of pounds of silage a day and 
not to exceed five or six pounds per head. Professor 



FEEDING OF SILAGE. 203 

Cook reports as follows in regard to the value of silage 
for sheep: "I have fed ensilage liberally to sheep for 
three winters and am remarkably pleased with the re- 
sults. I make ensilage half the daily ration, the other 
half being corn stalks, or timothy hay, with bran or oats. 
The sheep do exceedingly well. Formerly I was much 
troubled to raise lambs from grade Merino ewes. Of 
late this trouble has almost ceased. Last spring I hard- 
ly lost a lamb. While ensilage may not be the entire 
cause of the change, I believe it is the main cause. 
It is positively proved that ensilage is a most valuable 
food material, when properly fed, for all our domestic 
animals." 

Mr. J. S. Woodward, the well-known Xew York 
farmer and Farmers' Institute worker, who has made 
a specialty of early lamb raising, says, in an address 
before the New York Agricultural Society, regarding 
silage as feed for lambs: "In order to be successful 
in raising fine lambs it is imperative that the ewes and 
lambs both should have plenty of succulent food. Noth- 
ing can supply the deficiency. For this purpose roots of 
almost any kind are good. Turnips, rutabagas, man- 
golds are all good. Corn silage is excellent. Could I 
have my choice I would prefer both silage and roots. If 
I were depending on silage alone for succulent food I 
would give four pounds per hundred pounds live weight 
of sheep, all at one feed, at the forenoon feed ; but when 
feeding both silage and roots I would feed silage in the 
morning and roots in the afternoon." 

Mr. J. M. Turner of Michigan says concerning silage 
for sheep: "Of late years we have annually put up 
0,200 tons of corn ensilage, and this has been the princi- 



204 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

pal ration of all the live stock at Springdale Farm, our 
Shropshire sheep having been maintained on a ration of 
ensilage night and morning, coupled with a small ration 
of clover hay in the middle of the day. This we found 
to fully meet the requirements of our flock until after 
lambing, from which time forward we of course added 
liberal rations of wheat bran, oats, and old-process lin- 
seed meal to the ewes, with a view to increasing their 
flow of milk and bringing forward the lambs in the most 
vigorous possible condition. Our flock-master was some- 
what anxious until after the lambs dropped, but now 
that he saved 196 lambs from 122 ewes^ his face is 
wreathed in smiles, and he gives the ensilage system 
the strongest endorsement.'^ Mr. Turner states that, 
after becoming accustomed to the silage, his horses, 
cattle, and sheep would all push their noses down 
through the hay, if there w^as silage at the bottom of 
the manger, and little or no hay would be eaten until 
the silage was first taken. 

The following interesting experience illustrating the 
value of silage for sheep feeding is given by Mr. Wil- 
liam Woods, a celebrated English breeder of Hamp- 
shire-Downs : "Last year, in August, I found myself 
Avith a flock of some 1,200 Hampshire-Down ewes, and 
about twelve or fourteen acres of swedes, on a farm of 
4,000 acres, and these were all the roots there were to 
feed them and their lambs during the winter. Know- 
ing how we should suffer from want of milk after lamb- 
ing in January and February, I thought I would try 
(which no doubt has often been tried elsewhere, though 
not in this district) the effect of ensilage on ewes after 
lambing, having learned by hearsay that it increased the 



FEEDING OF SILAGE. 305 

milk of cows nearly 30 per cent. I at once set to work 
to irrigate what water meadows I could spare, and in 
the month of October had a crojo of grass that, had 
it been possible to make it into hay, would have made a 
ton of hay to the acre. I bought from the Aylesbury 
Dairy Company one of their Johnson's ensilage rick 
presses, and put some seventy to eighty tons of cut 
meadow grass under pressure. It must, however, be 
borne in mind that second-cut water meadow grass is 
some of the poorest stuff that is consumed, either green 
or in hay, and, therefore, my ensilage was not as good, 
and consequently not as favorable a trial, as if it had 
been made of better material. 

"In January, when well into lambing, I opened the 
stack, and began to feed it to the ewes that had lambed. 
At first they hardly cared to eat it, but by degrees they 
seemed to like it more. They had a night and morning 
meal of best sainfoin ha}^, and a small lot of ensilage 
with the cake given at midday. After three weeks' 
trial, what the shepherd observed was this : That when 
best sainfoin hay, worth £4 a ton, was put in the cages, 
and ensilage in the troughs at the same time, half the 
sheep would go to the hay and half to the ensilage, 
although there was sufficient accommodation for the 
whole flock at either sort, and we now observe that with 
the ewes that are most constant to the ensilage, their 
lambs are nourished better than the others. We have 
not lost a single lamb from scour, and have some 470 
lambs from 380 ewes lambed as yet, which I think proves 
the value of the experiment. As soon as the stuff ar- 
rives in carts the ewes are crazy for it, and almost come 
over the hurdles, so eager are they to get at this new sort 



206 MAKING AND FEEDING SII.AGE. 

of food, wliieh, as I have stated, is only water meadow 
grass ensilaged/^ 

Silage for Swine. 

The testimony concerning the value of silage as a 
food for swine is conflicting, both favorable and un- 
favorable reports being at hand. Many farmers have 
tried feeding it to their hogs, but without success. On 
the other hand, a number of hog-raisers have had good 
success with silage, and feed it regularly to their swine. 
It is possible that the differences in the quality of the 
silage and of the methods of feeding practiced explain 
the diversity of opinions formed concerning silage as 
hog food. According to Professor Cook, Col. F. D. Cur- 
tiss, the great American authority on the swine indus- 
try, states that silage is valuable to add to the winter 
rations of our swine. Mr. J. W. Pierce of Indiana 
writes in regard to silage for hogs : "We have fed our 
sows, about twenty-five in number, for four winters, 
equal parts of ensilage and corn meal put into a cooker, 
and brought up to a steaming state. It has proved to 
be very beneficial to them. It keeps up the flow of 
milk of the sows that are nursing the young, equal to 
when they are running on clover. We find, too, when 
the pigs are farrowed, they become more robust, and 
take to nursing much sooner and better than they did 
in winters when fed on an exclusively dry diet. We 
also feed it to our sheep. To sixty head we put out 
about six bushels of ensilage." Dr. Bailey, the author 
of "The Book on Ensilage," fed large hogs ten pounds 
of silage, and one pound of wheat bran, with good 
results; the cost of the ration did not exceed 2 cents 



FEEDING OF SILAGE. 207 

per day. He states that clover silage would be excel- 
lent, and would require no additional grain. Young 
pigs are exceeding^ fond of the silage. Feeding ex- 
periments conducted at Virginia Experiment Station 
show that silage is an economical maintenance feed for 
hogs, when fed in connection with corn, but not when 
fed alone. 

In feeding silage to hogs, care should be taken to feed 
only very little, a pound or so, at the start, mixing it 
with corn meal, shorts, or other concentrated feeds. 
The diet of the hog should be largely made up of easily 
digested grain food; bulky, coarse feeds like silage can 
only be fed to advantage in small quantities, not to 
exceed three or four pounds per head, per day. As in 
case of breeding ewes, silage will give good results when 
fed with care to brood sows, keeping the system in order, 
and producing a good flow of milk. 

Silage for Poultry. 

Many farmers are feeding a little silage to their 
poultry with good success. Only small quantities should 
be fed, of course, and it is beneficial as a stimulant and 
a regulator, as much as a food. A poultry man writer 
as follows in Orange Judd Farmer, concerning his 
experience in making and feeding silage to fowls. De- 
vices similar to that here described have repeatedly 
been explained in the agricultural press. "Clover and 
corn ensilage is one of the best winter foods for poultry 
raisers. Let me tell you how to build four silos for 
$1. Buy four coal-oil barrels at the drug store, burn 
them out on the inside, and take the heads out. Go 
to the clover field when the second cro]) of the small 



208 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

June clover is in tlie bloom, and cut one-half ton three- 
eighths of an inch in length, also one-half ton of sweet 
corn, and run this through the feed cutter. Put into 
the barrel a layer of clover, then a la3^er of corn. Hav- 
ing done this, take a common building jack-screw and 
press the silage down as firmly as possible. Then put 
on this a very light sprinkling of pulverized charcoal, 
and keep on putting in clover and corn until you get the 
barrel as full as will admit of the cover being put back. 
After your four barrel silos are filled, roll them out 
beside the barn, and cover them with horse manure, 
allowing them to remain there thirty days. Then put 
them away, covering with cut straw or hay. When the 
cold, chilling winds of December come, open one of 
these 'poultrymen's silos,' take about twenty pounds for 
one hundred hens, add equal parts of potatoes, ground 
oats, and winter rye, place same in a kettle and bring 
to a boiling state. Feed warm in the morning, and the 
result will be that you will be enabled to market seven 
or eight dozen eggs per day from one hundred hens 
through the winter, when eggs bring good returns." 



CHAPTER v.— COMPARISON OP SILAGE AND 
OTHER FEEDS. 

I. Economy of Production. 

We shall briefly consider in this chapter the com- 
parative value of silage and feeds that may take its 
place in the feeding of farm animals. The first point to 
examine in this connection is the question of the cost 
of production of the different foods. Silage may be 
replaced by roots and by dry roughage, like hay of. 
various kinds, dry fodder corn, corn stalks, straw, etc. 

Corn Silage vs. Roots. — In our country, the com- 
parison of roots and corn silage will come out more 
favorable to the latter feed than almost anywhere else, 
since corn is wonderfully well adapted to our climate, 
requiring a hot growing season and an occasional good 
supply of moisture for its perfection; roots, on the 
other hand, do best in a cool and moist climate, and 
yields obtained under such conditions are much larger 
than we can hope to reach here in normal seasons. This 
being true, it follows that, if roots are considered a more 
expensive crop than corn in countries- where they will 
do best, they must be still more so with us. 

R. Henry Rew discusses the relative value of the two 
foods from the standpoint of the English farmer, as 
follows : "The root crop has, for about a century and a 
half, formed the keystone of arable farming; yet it is 
the root crop whose position is most boldly challenged 
by ensilage. No doubt roots are expensive — say £10 per 

209 



210 MAKINti AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

acre as the cost of producing an ordinary crop of tur- 
nips — and precarious^, as the experience of the winter of 
1887-8 has once more notably exemplified in many parts 
of the country. In a suggestive article in the Farming 
World Almanac for 1888 Mr. Primrose McConnell dis- 
cusses the question: ^Are Turnips a Necessary Crop?' 
and sums up his answer in the following definite con- 
clusion : 

" ^Everything, in short, is against the use of roots, 
either as a cheap and desirable food for any kind of live 
stock, as a crop suited for the fallow break, which cleans 
the land at little outlay, or as one which preserves or 
increases the fertility of the soil.' 

"If the growth of turnips is abandoned or restricted, 
ensilage comes in usually to assist the farmer in sup- 
plying their place. . . . When one comes to com- 
pare the cultivation of silage crops with that of roots, 
there are two essential points in favor of the former. 
One is their smaller expense, and the other is their 
practical certainty. The farmer who makes silage can 
make certain of his winter store of food, whereas he who 
has only his root crop may find himself left in the lurch 
at a time when there is little chance of making other 
provision." 

A number of our American experiment stations have 
furnished data for comparing the yields and the cost of 
production of corn silage and roots in our country. The 
Ohio, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Ontario Experiment 
Stations raised roots in comj^arison with corn for one 
or more years. The average yields of green substance 
and dry matter are shown in the following table. 



SILAGE AND OTHER FEEDS. 211 

Yields Peb Acre of Roots and Fodder Corn. 





Maine 


Pennsylva- 


Ohio 


Ontario 




Station. 


nia Station. 


Station. 


College. 








o3 








6 


a 

c3 






OQ 


^ 


ED 


u 


^ 




.Q 










j3 


4^ 


s 


-t-" 








02 




72 


03 


cc 


C3 


02 


a 




O 


^ 


fl 


^ 


PI 


S 


fl 


S 




9i 


>> 


2 


>. 


^ 


>> 




Pm 




U 




I~ 


ti 


(H 


^< 






o 


ft 


o 


fl 





fi 




Lbs. 


P 




Lbs. 


Lbs. 


Lbs. 


Lbs. 


Lbs. 


Lbs. 


Lbs. 




31695 

15375 


3415 
1613 










42780 
55320 


4877 


Mangolds 


16177 


2382 


31500 


3000 


5034 




28500 
17645 


2559 
2590 


11436 








46120 
32063 


4382 


Sugar Beets 

Fodder Com -j 


2010 






4737 


21690 
39645 


3110 
5580 


'i8591 


' '5522 





6000 


'4ii72 


'8135 



In the Pennsylvania experiments a careful account 
of the cost of growing, harvesting, and storing the two 
crops was kept, with results as follows: 

Cost for one acre of beets in the pit $56.07 

" corn in the silo. 21.12 

These figures can only be considered approximations, 
but it is believed that the ratio between the cost for an 
acre of roots and of corn, expressed by them, is, at all 
events, not too unfavorable to the former. According 
to official statistics, the average cost of raising an acre 
of ear corn in the United States is $11.71. The siloing 
of the whole corn crop will not be likely to exceed much 
the expense of harvesting or gathering, housing, and 
marketing included in this estimate, and amounting to 
$3.98. On the other hand, the cost of raising a crop of 
beets has, in different States, been found to range from 
$31.36 to $60 per acre. 



212 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

Corn Silage vs. Hay. — Two tons of hay per acre is 
generally considered a very good crop in humid regions. 
The average yield for a number of years will . seldom 
exceed IJ tons with the best farmers. Since hay con- 
tains about 86 per cent dry matter, an average crop of 
1^ tons means about IJ tons of dry matter (2,580 
pounds). Against this yield we have yields of 5,000 
to 9,000 pounds of dry matter, or twice to three and a 
half times as much, in case of fodder corn. An average 
crop of green fodder will weigh twelve tons, of Northern 
varieties, and eighteen tons, of Southern varieties. Es- 
timating the percentage of dry matter in the former at 
30 per cent, and in the latter at 20 per cent, we shall 
have in either case a yield of 7,200 pounds of dry matter. 
The expense of growing the crop is, of course, higher 
in case of the corn, but by no means sufficiently so to 
offset the larger yields. It is a fact generally conceded 
by all who have given the subject any study, that the 
hay crop is the most expensive crop used for the feeding 
of our farm animals. 

Sir John B. Lawes, of Eothamsted Experiment Sta- 
tion (England) says, respecting the relative value of 
hay and (grass) silage: "It is probable that when both 
(i. e., hay and silage) are of the very best quality that 
can be made, if part of the grass is cut and placed in a 
silo, and another part is secured in the stack without 
rain, one might prove as good food as the other. But 
it must be borne in mind that while the production of 
good hay is a matter of uncertainty — from the elements 
of success being beyond the control of the farmer — good 
silage, by taking proper precautions, can be made with 
a certainty." 



SILAGE AND OTHER FEEDS. 213 

The amount of space required for storing one ton of 
hay or of silage sj^eaks very strongly for the latter. 
One ton of hay stored in the mow will fill a space of at 
least 400 cubic feet ; one ton of silage, a space of about 
50 cubic feet. Considering the dry matter contained in 
both feeds, we have that 8,000 pounds of silage contains 
about as much dry matter as 2,323 pounds of hay, or 
160 against 465 cubic feet, that is, it takes nearly three 
times as much room to store the same quantity of food 
materials in hay as in silage. 

CoEN Silage vs. Fodder Corn. — The cost of pro- 
duction is the same for the green fodder up to the time 
of siloing, in case of both systems; as against the ex- 
pense of siloing the crop comes that of shocking, and, 
later on, placing the fodder under shelter in the field- 
curing process; further, husking, cribbing, and grind- 
ing the corn, and cutting the corn stalks, since this is 
the most economical way of handling the crop, and the 
only vray in which it can be fully utilized so as to be of 
equal value with the silage. As an average of five Wis- 
consin farms. Professor King, as we sav.', found the 
cost of placing corn in the silo to be 58.6 cents per ton, 
or, adding to this amount, interest and taxes on silo 
investment, and insurance and maintenance of silo per 
ton, 73.2 cents. The expense of shocking and sheltering 
the cured fodder and, later cutting the same, will greatly 
exceed that of siloing the crop ; to obtain the full value 
in feeding the ear corn, it must, furthermore, in most 
cases, be ground, costing 10 cents or more a bushel. 
The advantage is, therefore, decidedly with the siloed 
fodder in economy of handling, as well as in the cost of 
production. 



214 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

As regards the space required for storing dry fodder 
corn compared with silage, the former will take up still 
more room than the hay, since it can not be packed 
closely, but must be set up rather loosely in bundles, to 
prevent the fodder from heating. According to Pro- 
fessor Alvord, an acre of corn, field-cured, stored in the 
most compact manner possible, will occupy a space ten 
times as great as if in the form of silage. While hay 
will contain about 86 per cent of dry matter, cured 
fodder corn often does not contain more than 60 and 
sometimes onlv 50 per cent of dry matter ; the quantities 
of food materials in fodder corn that can be stored in a 
given space are, therefore, greatly smaller than in case 
of hay, and, consequently, still smaller than in case of 
silage. 

II. Comparative Feeding Experitneiits. 

While the economy of production speaks decidedly in 
favor of silage as compared with roots and dry, coarse 
fodders, it might happen that the nutritive materials 
of the latter were sufficiently superior to those of silage 
to more than make up for their greater cost. Such is, 
however, not the case. In comparative feeding experi- 
ments with the various crops, silage has, as a rule, pro- 
duced the better results, or practically no difference in 
the nutritive effect of the different feeds has been found. 
We shall briefly summarize some of the data at hand 
bearing on this phase of our subject. 

Silage vs. Eoots.— We previously gave the average 
digestion coefficients obtained for green and dry fodder 
corn and for corn silage (p. 178). Only a limited num- 
ber of digestion experiments have been conducted with 



SILAGE AND OTHER FEEDS. 215 

roots, but enough has been done to ascertain that they 
are highly digestible^ the digestion coefficients for dry 
matter found ranging from 78 to 98, against about GO 
for corn silage. Nevertheless, owing to tlie larger yields 
per acre of dry matter, the total quantity of digestible 
matter obtained from an acre of corn under our con- 
ditions is much larger than that obtained from an acre 
of roots. In the Pennsylvania experiments, as much 
digestible matter was produced on one acre when planted 
to corn, as was obtained from 1.91 acres of mangolds or 
2.05 acres of sugar beets. 

Feeding experiments have been conducted with milch 
cows, steers, sheep, and swine for the comparison of 
roots and silage. 

In feeding experiments with milch cows at the Ohio 
Station, conducted for four consecutive years, the silage 
rations always gave somewhat the better results. The 
average gain in milk per 100 pounds of dry matter eaten 
amounted to 4 per cent in favor of the silage rations. 
The results of the different years are as shown below. 

POUNDS OF MILK PRODUCED PER 100 POUNDS OF 
DRY MATTER CONSUMED. 

Ration. 1889 1890 1891 1892 Av. 

Beet ration 59 59 62 69 62 

Silage ration 62 60 66 76 66 

Similar experiments conducted at the Pennsylvania 
and Vermont Stations gave corresponding results, the 
conclusion drawn being that ^'beets cost more to grow, 
harvest and store, 34eld less per acre, and produce at 
best no more and no better milk than corn silage.^' 



216 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

Steer feeding experiments with roots vs. silage have 
been conducted at the Ontario Agricultural College, 
where six steers, divided into three even lots, were fed 
as follows : Lot 1, corn silage ad libitum, with about 
twelve pounds of corn meal ; lot 2, thirty pounds of 
corn silage, about twelve pounds of corn meal, and hay 
ad libitum; lot 3, forty-five pounds of sliced roots, corn 
meal, and hay as in lot 2. The trial lasted 146 days; 
the average gains per day for the different lots were: 
Lot 1, 1.90 pounds; lot 2, 1.53 pounds; lot 3, 1.84 
pounds. The total value of the animals at the close of 
the experiments was, $197.07, $188.24,' and $189.67 
for lots 1, 2, and 3, respectively, making the percentage 
gain on investment, calculated according to Canadian 
prices of feed and labor, 22.7 per cent for lot 1, 20.0 per 
cent for lot 2, and 15.0 per cent for lot 3. 

The Ottawa Experiment Station in 1893 conducted 
experiments for the comparison of roots and silage as 
feed for fattening steers, and found that a daily gain 
of 1.05 pounds was made on a hay, root, and straw 
ration, and of 1.35 pounds on a corn silage and straw 
ration. The average cost per head per day was 13.78 
cents on the former ration, and 9.26 cents on the latter; 
calculated per 100 pounds of increase, the cost was 
$13.35, and $6.95 for root and silage rations, respect- 
ively, i. e., a difference of 92.08 per cent against the 
root ration. 

Silage vs. roots for fattening lambs have been com- 
pared in several experiments at Michigan Experiment 
Station. Sugar beets proved superior to silage for lambs 
in the first year's experiment; the conclusion drawn 
was that either feed may enter largely into the fatten- 



SILAGE AND OTHER FEEDS. 217 

ing ration and may be fed with profit. In comparing 
rutabagas with silage for fattening himbs the same gain 
was obtained in both cases, viz. : seventeen pounds per 
week per head. Although the quantity of grain fed was 
the same, the lambs fed rutabagas consumed a con- 
siderably larger quantity of hay than those fed silage, 
and the amount of rutabagas eaten as compared with 
silage was very large. The profit on the root-fed lot was 
22 cents on each lamb; that on the silage-fed lot, 63 
cents. The silage, therefore, produced the same gain 
in fattening lambs at a greatly diminished cost, as com- 
pared with rutabagas. 

Corn silage was compared with beets as foods for 
Merino ewes, at the Cornell Experiment Station. As 
the average of two experiments it was found that the 
ewes gained 3.33 pounds per week when roots were fed, 
and 3.49 pounds when silage was fed. "The ewes 
learned to like the silage as readily as they did the 
beets.'' 

The relative feeding value of silage and roots for 
swine was studied in a single experiment at Ontario 
Agricultural College. The pigs fed silage and grain 
did not do very well, and gained less than those fed 
grain, or turnips find grain. 

Silage vs. Dry Eoughage. — A large number of ex- 
periments have been conducted with the various classes 
of farm animals for the study of the comparative feed- 
ing value of silage and dry roughage, either hay, fodder 
corn, or cornstalks. We can here only mention a few 
typical experiments. 

In an experiment with milch cows conducted at the 
New Hampshire Station, where silage was compared 



218 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

with hay, the silage ration, containing 16.45 pounds of 
digestible matter, produced 21.0 pounds of milk, and the 
hay ration, containing 16.83 pounds digestible matter, 
produced 18.4 pounds milk; calculating the quantities 
of milk produced by 100 pounds of digestible matter in 
either case, we find on the silage ration 127.7 pounds of 
milk, on the hay ration, 109.3 pounds, or 17 per cent in 
favor of the silage ration. 

In a feeding experiment with milch cows at the Maine 
Experiment Station, in which silage was compared with 
hay, the addition of silage to the ration resulted in a 
somewhat increased production of milk solids, which 
was not caused by an increase in the digestible food 
materials eaten, but which must have been due either to 
the superior value of the nutrients of the silage over 
those of the hay or to the general physiological effect 
of feeding a greater variety of foods. 8.8 pounds of 
silage proved to be somewhat superior to 1.98 pounds 
of hay (mostly timothy), the quantity of digestible ma- 
terial being the same in the two cases. 

In another experiment, conducted at the same station, 
where silage was compared Avith hay for steers, a pound 
of digestible matter from the corn silage produced some- 
what more growth than a pound of digestible matter 
from timothy hay. The difference was small, however, 
amounting in the case of the last two periods, where the 
more accurate comparison is possible, to an increased 
growth of only 15 pounds of live weight for each ton 
of silage fed. 

Feeding experiments with milch cows were conducted 
for a series of years by the author and others, at the 
Wisconsin Experiment Station, in which the relative 



SILAGE AND OTHER FEEDS. 219 

value of corn silage and corresponding lield-cnred fod- 
der corn was investigated. The earlier of these experi- 
ments were made with only a couple of animals each, 
and no great reliance can, therefore, be placed on the 
results obtained in any single experiment. In later 
years a larger number of cows have been included in the 
experiments, and these have been continued for a suffi- 
ciently long time to show what the animals could do 
on each feed. In 1891 a feeding experiment with twen- 
ty cows was conducted by the writer, in which a daily 
ration of 4 pounds of hay and 7 pounds of grain, fed 
with corn silage or field-cured fodder corn ad libitum, 
was fed during sixteen weeks; a total quantity of 19,- 
813.4 pounds of milk was produced during the silage 
periods, and 19,801.2 pounds of milk during the fodder 
corn periods. When the areas of land from which the 
silage and the fodder corn were obtained are considered, 
we find that the silage would have produced 213 pounds 
more of milk per acre than the dry fodder, or the equiv- 
alent of 12 pounds of butter, which is a gain of a little 
more than 3 per cent in favor of the corn silage. Simi- 
lar results, or more favorable to silage, have been ob- 
tained in feeding experiments with which cows of a 
number of stations, notably Xew Jersey, Vermont, and 
New York (Geneva). 

This may appear a very small difference to some, 
but it must be remembered that in this, as in all similar 
previous experiments, the fodder corn vras handled in 
the most careful manner, so as to avoid losses by fer- 
mentations or abrasion. It was left in shocks in the field 
for about a month, then carefully transferred to the 
station barn, tied up in bundles, and cut before feeding. 



220 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

The results^ tlierefore, show what dry fodder can do 
under the most favorable conditions. In ordinary farm 
practice the loss of food materials in the silo would be 
no larger than found by us, if as large, owing to 
the small size of the experimental silo then used, while 
the fodder corn, most likely, Avould not be as well cared 
for, being often kept shocked in the field until needed 
for feeding; in a majority of cases not even cut and 
shocked, and often fed whole in the yard, with losses of 
food materials ranging from 30 to 60 per cent, accord- 
ing to data found at the Kansas Station. Cutting the 
corn fodder before feeding, according to Professor 
Henry's experiments, may save more than one-third of 
the food value of the fodder. We can not, therefore, 
hope to obtain equally good results with silage and field- 
cured fodder unless special pains are taken throughout 
to guard against deterioration of the fodder; precau- 
tions, it will readily be granted, more laborious and 
costly than making silage of the corn crop. 

A few more experiments illustrating the value of 
silage as a stock food, may be quoted. Professor Henry 
fed two lots of steers on a silage experiment. One lot 
of four steers was fed corn silage exclusively, and 
another similar lot, corn silage with shelled corn. The 
former lot gained 222 pounds in thirty-six days, and 
the latter lot 535 pounds, or a gain of 1.5 pounds per 
day per head for the silage-fed steers, and 3.7 pounds 
per day for the silage and shelled-corn fed steers. Pro- 
fessor Emery fed corn silage and cotton-seed meal, in the 
proportion of eight to one, to two three-year-old steers 
at the Korth Carolina Experiment Station. The gain 
made during thirty-two days was, for one steer 78 



SILAGE AND OTHER FEEDS. 221 

pounds^ and for the other 85.5 i^ounds, or 2.56 pounds 
per head per day. 

The late well-known Wisconsin dairyman^ Hon. 
Hiram Smith, in 1888 cave the followinii; testimony 
concerning the value of silage for milch cows : "My 
silo was opened December 1st, and thirty pounds of 
ensilage was fed to each of the ninety cows for the 
night's feed, or 2,700 pounds per day, until March 10th, 
one hundred days, or a total of 135 tons, leaving suf- 
ficient ensilage to last until May 10th. The thirty 
pounds took and well filled the place of ten pounds of 
good hay. Had hay been fed for the night's feed in place 
of the ensilage, it would have required 900 pounds per 
day for the ninety cows, or a total for the one hundred 
days of forty-five tons. 

"It would have required, in the year 1887, forty-five 
acres of meadow to have produced the hay, which, if 
bought or sold, would have amounted to $14.00 per 
acre. The 135 tons of ensilage were produced on 8^ 
acres of land, and had a feeding value, as compared 
with hay, of $74.11 per acre." As the conclusion of 
the whole matter, Mr. Smith stated that "three cows 
can be wintered seven months on one acre producing IG 
tons of ensilage, while it required two acres of meadow 
in the same year of 1887, to winter one cow, witJi the 
same amount of ground feed in both cases." 

Professor Shelton, formerly of Kansas Agricultural 
College, gives a powerful plea for silage in the follow- 
ing simple statement: "The single fact that the pro- 
duct of about two acres of ground kept our herd of fifty 
head of cattle five weeks with no other feed of the fodder 
kind, except a small ration of corn fodder given at noon, 



222 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

speaks whole cyclopedias for the possibilities of Kansas 
fields when the silo is called in as an adjunct/' 

The Ohio Experiment Station sums np the value of 
silage for stock food in the following words: "The 
logical conclusion of all this work is that the process 
of siloing adds nothing to the nutritive value of a feed- 
ing stuff. It does add to its palatability, however, when 
the method has been properly employed, and in conse- 
quence a larger proportion of the fodder will be con- 
sumed. In regard to the cost of this method, we do 
not consider it any greater than that of the ordinary 
method of cutting and husking and stacking the stover, 
and not so great as cutting, husking, and stacking and 
grinding the grain, and certainly all this must be done 
if the food materials are to be as thoroughly preserved 
and made as completely available as they are in well- 
cured silage." 



CHAPTER VI.— THE SILO IN MODERN xiGRI- 

CULTURE. 

In closing our discussion of the making and feeding 
of silage, it may be well to consider briefly the main 
advantages of the system of preserving green forage in 
silos. In doing so, we shall summarize the conclusions 
previously arrived at, concerning the economy of the 
system, and shall call attention to some points that we 
have not before had an occasion to touch upon. The 
advantages of the silo enumerated below will not be 
apt to hold good simultaneously in individual cases; 
but it is believed that a majority of them will be of 
general importance, thus showing the decided superior- 
ity of the siloing method over other systems of preserv- 
ing coarse fodders for the feeding of farm animals. 

I. The silo enables us to preserve a greater quantity 
of the food materials of the original fodder, for the 
feeding of farm animals, than is possible by any other 
system of preservation now known. We have seen that 
the necessary losses of nutrients incurred in the siloing 
process need not exceed 10 per cent, and that by be- 
ginning to feed from the silo soon after it has been filled, 
the loss will be reduced to a minimum which may not 
be far from 5 per cent. In haymaking or field-curing 
of coarse fodders, there is an unavoidable loss;of leaves 
and other tender parts, and in case of curing fodder corn 
there will be a fermentative loss of toward 10 per cent 
under the best of conditions, or about as much as is lost 
in the silo. The loss of dry matter will approach 25 per 



224 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

cent in ordinary farm practice, and will even exceed 
this figure unless special precautions are taken in the 
handling of the fodder. 

II. Eainy weather is a disadvantage in filling silos 
as in most other farm operations, but when the silo is 
once filled, the fodder is safe, and the farmer is inde- 
pendent of the weather throughout the season. 

III. Less room is required for the storage in a silo 
of the product from an acre of land than in cured condi- 
tion in a barn. Hay placed in the mow will take up 
about three times as much room as the same quantity of 
food materials put into the silo; in case of field-cured 
fodder corn, the comparison comes out still more favor- 
ably to the silo, on account of the greater difficulty in 
preserving the thick cornstalks from heating when placed 
under shelter. 

IV. Since smaller barns may be built when silage is 
fed, there is less danger of fire, thus decreasing the cost 
of insurance. 

V. An acre of corn can be placed in the silo at less 
cost than the same quantity can be put up as cured 
fodder. To derive full benefit from the food materials 
in the field-cured fodder corn, it must be run through a 
feed cutter in small portions at a time ; the corn must, 
in most cases, be husked, cribbed, and either ground, 
cob and all, or shelled and ground. In siloing the whole 
corn plant, the cutting is all done at once, thus econo- 
mizing labor and doing away with the separate handling 
of the ear corn. 

VI. The silo furnishes a feed of uniform quality, 
available at any time during the whole winter or year. 
This is of advantage to all classes of farm animals, but 



THE SILO IN MODERN AGRICULTURE. 225 

perhaps particularly so in case of dairy cows and sheep, 
since these animals are especially sensitive to sudden 
changes in the feed. 

VII. Silage is of special value for feeding prepara- 
tory to turning cattle on to the watery pasture grass in 
the spring. The loss in weight of cattle on being let 
out on pasture in spring is often so great that it takes 
them a couple of weeks to get back where they were 
when turned out. When turned out in the spring, steers 
will be apt to lose weight, no matter whether silage or 
dry feed has been fed, unless they are fed some grain 
during the first week or two after they are let out. 

VIII. Succulent food is nature's food. The influence 
of well-preserved silage on the digestion and general 
health of animals is very beneficial, according to the 
unanimous testimony of good authorities. It is a mild 
laxative, and acts in this way very similarly to green 
fodders. The good accounts reported of the preven- 
tion of milk fever by the feeding of silage are explained 
by the laxative influence of the feed. 

IX. By filling the silo with clover or other green 
summer crops early in the season, a valuable succulent 
feed will be at hand at a time when pastures in most 
regions are apt to give out ; then again, the silo may be 
filled with corn when this is in the roasting stage, and 
the land thus entirely cleared earlier than when the 
corn is left to mature and the corn fodder shocked on the 
land, making it possible to finish the fall ploughing 
sooner and to seed the land down to grass or to winter 
grain. 

X. Crops unfit for haymaking may be preserved in 
the silo and changed into a palatable food. This is not 



226 MAKING AND FEEDING SILAGE. 

of the importance in this land of plenty of ours that 
it is, or occasionally has been, elsewhere. Under silage 
crops were mentioned a number of crops which could 
not be used as cattle food in any other form than this, 
as ferns, thistles, all kinds of weeds, etc. In case of 
fodder famine the silo may thus help the farmer to 
carry his cattle through the winter. 

XI. Where haymaking is precluded, as is some- 
times the case with second-crop clover, rowen, etc., on 
account of rainy weather late in the season, the silo 
will preserve the crop, so that the farmer may derive 
full benefit from it in feeding it to his stock. 

XII. More cattle can be kept on a certain area of 
land when silage is fed than is otherwise the case. The 
silo in this respect furnishes a similar advantage over 
field-curing fodders as does the soiling system over 
that of pasturing cattle; in both the siloing and the 
soiling system there is no waste of feed, all food grown 
on the land being utilized for the feeding of farm ani- 
mals, except a small unavoidable loss in case of the 
siloing system incurred by the fermentation processes 
taking place in the silo. 

Pasturing cattle is an expensive method of feeding, 
as far as the use of the land goes, and can only be 
practiced to advantage where this is cheap. As the 
land increases in value, more stock must be kept on the 
same area in order to correspondingly increase the prof- 
its from the land. The silo here comes in as a material 
aid, and by its adoption, either alone or in connection 
with the soiling system, it will be possible to keep at 
least twice the number of animals on the land that can 
be done under the more primitive system of pasturing 



THE SILO IN MODERN AGRICULTURE. 237 

and feeding dry feeds during winter. Goffart's ex- 
perience on this point is characteristic. On his small 
farm, of less than eighty-six acres (thirty-five hectares), 
at Burtin, France, he kept a herd of sixty cattle, besides 
fattening a number of steers during the winter, and 
eye-witnesses assure us that he had ample feed on hand 
to keep one hundred head of cattle the year round. 

According to the testimony of hundreds of intelligent, 
observing dairymen, the silo is next to a necessity in 
modern dairying in most sections of our country. It 
is also largely considered so by agricultural writers, and 
by farmers generally. It is, however, of no less im- 
portance where other branches of animal husbandry are 
followed more or less as a specialty. This, we think, 
is abundantly proved by the data and the results of 
practical experience and systematic investigations pre- 
sented in the preceding pages. The building of the silo, 
therefore, should not stop, and will not do so, until 
dair}'- and stock farmers in the width and breadth of 
our land have become acquainted with the siloing sys- 
tem, and are aware of its value. It is the hope of the 
author that this little book will, in some measure, help 
to make the system better known and understood among 
the mass of our farmers, and will assist them in their 
efforts to reduce the cost of production of their products, 
and thus enlarge the income from their farms. 



INDEX. 

PAGE 

Advantages of the silo 223 

Alfalfa silage .30, 165, 189 

Barn, silos in the 101 

Bays of barn, directions for changing into silos 102 

Beet-pulp silage 34 

Beets, cost of, per acre 211 

Brick silos 117 

Bulls, breeding, silage for 199 

Carbonic-acid poisoning in silos, danger from 154 

Chemical composition of silage 169 

Chute for a round wooden silo 59 

Circles, circumferences and areas of 100 

Clover silage .28, 164 

Clover silage, cost of 28, 169 

Clover, time of cutting, for the silo 29 

Clover, yield per acre of 29 

Concrete, directions for preparing. 120 

Corn, broadcast sowing of 26 

Corn, cutting of, in the field 139 

Corn harvesters _ 139 

Corn land, preparation of 27 

Corn, methods of planting 22 

Corn silage vs. dry roughage, feeding experiments with 217 

Corn silage vs. fodder corn 213 

Corn silage vs. hay 212 

Corn silage vs . roots .-. 209 

Corn, siloing of, ' ' ears and all " 148 

Corn, see also Indian corn and Fodder corn. 

Corners of square silos, methods of excluding air from 112 

Cost of beets per acre 211 

228 



INDEX. 229 

PAGB 

Cost of corn silage , 168 

Cost of silos 133 

Cover of silage 156 

Cow-pea oilage 33 

Definitions of terms used 11 

Descriptions of round wooden silos 60 

Digestibility of silage 177 

Digestibility of Southern and Northern varieties of corn 21 

Digestion coefficients for corn silage 178 

Digestion coefficients for green and cured fodder corn 178 

Digestion coefficients for green Dent fodder corn 17 

Dry silage. ... ... 160 

Early lamb-raising, importance of feeding succulent feeds in. 203 

Ears and all, siloing of corn 148 

Elevators, pneumatic 152 

Ensilage 11 

Ensilage, see Silage. 

Feeding experiments, comparative, with silage and other 

feeds 214 

Feeding of silage 190 

Field-curing of fodder corn, losses in 179 

Filling, fast or slow, of silos 153 

Filling of silo 139, 150 

Fodder corn and roots, yields of, per acre 211 

Fodder corn compared with corn silage 213, 218 

Fodder corn, composition of dry matter of 15 

Fodder corn, green, digestion coefficients for 17 

Fodder corn, storage room required for, compared with corn 

silage 214 

Fodder corn, yield of food ingredients of 15 

Fodder corn, see also Indian corn and Gcnm. 

Freezing of silage 95, 167 

Gould, John, |43 silo of. 103 

Grout silos 119 

Hauling corn from field, rack or sled for 143 

Hay compared with corn silage 212 

Hay, storage room required for, compared with corn silage.. 213 
Hills or drills, planting of corn in 25 



230 INDEX. 

PAGE 

Horizontal girts, silos with 114 

Horses, silage for 199 

Indian corn 11, 13 

Indian corn, chemical changes in, with maturity . . 16 

Indian corn, comparative yields of Northern and Southern 

varieties 30 

Indian corn, development of 13 

Indian corn, increase in food ingredients from tasseling to 

ripeness 16 

Indian corn, varieties of, to be planted for the silo 18 

Indian corn, see also Corn and Fodder corn. 

Introduction 7 

Lateral pressure in silos 47 

Literature on silos and silage _ 128 

Losses in field-curing fodder corn 179 

Losses in siloing clover . 188 

Losses in siloing corn 181 

Losses of food materials in silo 179 

Lucern, see Alfalfa. 

Metal silos 121 

Milch cows, American silage rations for 195 

Milch cows, silage for 191, 215, 218, 221 

Missouri Experiment Station silo, description of 1 70 

Mules, silage for _ 202 

New Jersey Experiment Station silo, description of .63 

Pits in the ground as silos 126 

Planting corn, in hills or in drills _ 25 

Planting corn, inethods of 22 

Planting corn, thickness of. 22 

Pneumatic elevators 152 

' ' Poultrymen's silos " 207 

Poultry, silage for 207 

Preparation of corn land . . 27 

Preservation of silos 131 

Rack, low-down, for hauling corn. 143 

Rations, silage, for dairy cows _ 195 

Respiration, intermolecular 37 

Robertson's ensilage mixture 33 



INDEX. 231 

PAGE 

Roots and fodder corn, yields per acre of _ . . 211 

Roots compared with corn silage 209, 21 4 

Round barns 77 

Round silos 50, 78. 119 

Round silos, capacity of 39. 40 

Round silos, cost of 134, 136 

Sheep, silage for 202, 217 

Shredded silage .._ 162 

Silage, alfalfa ...30. 165, 189 

Silage and other feeds, comparative feeding experiments 

with .. . 214 

Silage and other feeds, comparison of economy of produc- 
tion of 209 

Silage cart 192 

Silage, chemical composition of _ _ . 169 

Silage, clover 28, 164 

Silage, cost of 168 

Silagecrops 13, 28, 30 

Silage, digestibility of 177 

Silage, dry i60 

Silage, feeding of 190 

Silage, feeding of, directly after filling silo 157 

Silage for breeding bulls 199 

Silage for horses _ 199 

Silage for milch cows 191 

Silage for mules 202 

Silage for poultry 207 

Silage for sheep 202 

Silage for steers 198 

Silage for swine 206 

Silage, freezing of 95, 167 

Silage, objections to, considered I93 

Silage, quantities of, required for different herds .38, 40 

Silage rations for milch cows I95 

Silage, relation of moisture and acidity in _ . 170 

Silage, shredded 162 

Silage, sweet I75 

Silage, sweet vs. sour I74 



232 INDEX. 

PAGE 

Silage truck 193 

Silage, whole vs. cut 145 

Silo, advantages of 223 

Silo, a primitive wooden. 112 

Silo, bottom of 45 

Silo building, essentials in 36 

Silo building, material for 48 

Silo, filling of_-. 139, 150 

Silo filling, power and cutters for _ 152 

Silo, foundation and wall of 45 

Silo in modern agriculture, the 223 

Silo, John Gould's 103 

Silo literature - 128 

Silo, location of 44 

Silo, losses of food materials in . . .179, 186 

Silo stacks 122 

Silo, the, when to cut corn for 18 

Siloed fodder, cover of 156 

Silos and silage, list of experiment station publications on... 129 

Silos, brick 117 

Silos, capacities of 39, 40 

Silos, coal-oil barrels made into 207 

Silos, concrete 119 

Silos, cost of 133 

Silos, danger from carbonic-acid poisoning in 154 

Silos, description of different kinds of 50 

Silos, doors of ..57, 89 

Silos, form of 40 

Silos, general considerations 36 

Silos, grout 119 

Silos in the barn 101 

Silos, lining and siding of 55 

Silos, metal -- 121 

Silos, painting of --- 48, 59, 84 

Silos, pits in the ground as 127 

Silos, preservation of — 131 

Silos, rectangular and round, statements of cost of 137 

Silos, roof of 48, 57, 83, 92 



INDEX. 233 

PAes 

Silos, round all-stone. 118 

Silos, round wooden 50 

Silos, round wooden, capacity of 39, 40 

Silos, round wooden, chute for. 59 

Silos, round wooden, cost of.. 136 

Silos, size of 38, 40 

Silos, specifications for 51, 81 

Silos, square, methods of excluding air from corners of 112 

Silos, stack 122 

Silos, stave 78 

Silos, stone 117 

Silos, ventilation of 47, 59 

Silos with horizontal girts 114 

Silos, wooden. 50 

Silos, wooden, separate square or rectangular 107 

Sled for hauling corn 144 

Sled cutter for cutting corn 141 

Soja-bean silage 33 

Sorghum silage 31 

Specifications for a round wooden silo 51 

Specifications for a stave silo 81 

South Dakota Experiment Station silo, description of 72 

Southern and Northern varieties of corn, digestibility of 21 

Southern and Northern varieties of corn, comparative yields of, 20 

Sowing corn broadcast 26 

Stack silos 122 

Stave silos _. 78 

Stave silos, beveled vs. unbeveled staves for _._ 84 

Stave silos, calculation of staves required for. 100 

Stave silos, foundation of 87 

Stave silos, roof of.. 92 

Stave silos, specifications for 81 

Stave silos, wire fencing for hoops of 86 

Staves, calculation of number required 100 

Steers, silage for 198, 216, 220 

Stone silos 117 

Storage room required for corn silage and for fodder corn... 214 
Storage room required for hay and for silage 213 



234 INDEX. 

FAGS 

Sweet vs. sour silage 174 

Swine, silage for 206, 217 

Thickness of planting corn 22 

Varieties of corn to be planted for the silo 18 

Water, addition of, to surface of siloed fodder 157 

Weeds, silage of --- 34 

Whole silage _ 145 

Wisconsin Experiment Station silos, descriptions of 65, 68 

Yields of clover per acre 29 

Yields of roots and of fodder corn 211 



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